Mumbai’s active Covid cases near 50K; civic body takes over bed management

The number of active Covid cases in Mumbai came close to 50,000 on Wednesday

The number of active Covid cases in Mumbai came close to 50,000 on Wednesday.

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Mumbai reported 5,399 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, and 15 deaths, taking the active cases in the city to 49,953, and the toll to 11,690. So far, Mumbai has reported a total of 414,773 Covid-19 cases.

To manage allotment of hospital beds to cater to the rising number of cases in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) took over bed allotment through its Covid war room at the ward level. Hospital beds cannot be directly assigned to patients anymore by the hospital. This system was put in place by the civic body at the beginning of the pandemic in March last year. However, municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal on Monday reiterated that hospitals will not be allowed to assign beds to patients directly, and such allotment has to happen through Covid war rooms at each ward, in a centralised manner. All assistant commissioners were directed to take over hospital beds in their respective wards.

Emphasising that the situation is not out of control, Chahal who took the Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday said, “We are detecting high number of cases as we have increased the number of tests. The number of tests will soon go up to 60,000 per day and the number of infected people can be as high as 10,000 per day. Of these, the number of people in need of a bed will be relatively small, given the current situation. The mortality rate in Mumbai is also low now. For the growing number of patients, bed management is being done through ward war rooms, as before.”

A total of 85,000 patients were found in the 48 days from February 10 to March 30. Of these, 69,500 patients were found to be asymptomatic, Chahal said on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Mumbai conducted 41,363 Covid-19 tests, with a positivity rate of 13%. So far, Mumbai has conducted a total of 4,083,173 tests. Presently, the cumulative case fatality rate is 2.8% as opposed to over 3% recorded earlier this month.

As of March 31, Mumbai has a total of 13,110 hospital beds for symptomatic, serious and critical Covid-19 patients, of which 10,061 are occupied and 3,049 are available. There are 1,627 ICU beds of which 324 are vacant, 1,000 ventilator beds of which 170 are vacant, and 8,914 beds with oxygen supply, of which 2,219 are vacant. There are 3,451 beds for asymptomatic patients in Covid Care facilities (CCC2) of which 884 are vacant.