By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, June 2:
With a steep rise in the number of new Covid-19 cases, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Iqbal Singh Chahal on Wednesday asked civic officials to ramp up testing on a war-footing to curb the spread of the disease.
On Wednesday 1081 new cases were reported in Maharashtra. The number was much higher compared to 782 cases registered on February 27. With this, the number of active patients rose to 5113 in the state. While 524 patients were recovered, no death was reported on Wednesday. With 77,36,275 patients recovered so far, the recovery rate remained at 98.07 percent, whereas the casualty rate was 1.87 percent in the state.
In Mumbai, the COVID-19 cases have been steadily going up since the beginning of May. With 506 new cases reported on Tuesday, the number of daily fresh cases crossed the 500-mark for the first time after February 23, when 168 cases were reported. With this the number of active cases reached 2526 in the metropolis.
Chahal asked officials to keep the staff of jumbo field hospitals. Nine Covid centres have been dismantled while the nine Jumbo Covid-19 centres will remain operational at least till September in Mumbai. Out of 24,472 beds, only 90 beds have been occupied at present. Till now the BMC has conducted 1,71,36,694 tests.
The new cases being reported daily have tremendously gone up in Mumbai, and with monsoon around the corner, we will now see a rapid rise in symptomatic cases, Chahal told BMC officials.
The civic chief asked the BMC officials to tell private laboratories to be proactive and fully prepared. He also asked the Assistant Municipal Commissioners (AMCs) to take daily reviews of the COVID-19 situation in their wards and intervene wherever required. He also asked all the AMCs to review the status of ward war rooms to ensure they are fully equipped with staff, medical teams, and ambulances, and also to put private hospitals on alert.
Chahal also directed the officials to visit jumbo hospitals coming under their jurisdiction, to ensure they are monsoon-ready with de-watering pumps, structural stability certification, fire safety mechanisms, medical and paramedic staff, and oxygen manufacturing plants and fully equipped with medicines. He also stated that the jumbo medical facility in the Malad area in North Mumbai should be put to use on priority if hospitalizations rise in the coming days. He also asked the civic officials to boost up the inoculation drive in the 12-18 years category and persuade people to take booster doses of vaccine against COVID-19.
