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Surge in cases leads to lack of beds for Covid-19 patients in Navi Mumbai
On Monday, 1,074 new cases were reported in Navi Mumbai, taking the tally to 85,950. The city also reported four deaths, taking toll to 1,241. Active cases stand at 11,579.
Between March 29 and April 2, Mahek Mukadam has barely had a moment’s rest. The 34-year-old Vashi resident received a call last Monday from the Covid centre where her father was admitted. “Your father’s condition is deteriorating. Please shift him to an ICU [Intensive Care Unit] bed,” the caller from the City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) Exhibition Centre – a jumbo Covid Care Facility with 1,200 beds which came up in May 2020 told her. Saleem Bhatkar, 59, had got admitted to the centre on March 24 after he tested positive for the coronavirus disease. Soon after the call, Mukadam began the search: she visited at least 20 hospitals, she said, between Panvel and Airoli. Not one had an ICU bed free.
“He was already on bypass oxygen bed and yet he needed an ICU. We were continuously getting calls from the center to look for an ICU bed. I would have visited at least 20 private hospitals right from Panvel to Airoli. We were told there were no beds. After a lot of struggle we managed to find one ICU room at Rajpal Hospital in Kopar Khairne,” she said.
But by then, Bhatkar’s condition had worsened. The hospital asked Mukadam to look for plasma donors – a secondary level treatment that many doctors have taken to providing though a September study by the Indian Council for Medical Research pointed out that plasma therapy did not help in reducing mortality rates or progression of the disease to a severe state. Nevertheless, it’s a popular therapy employed by doctors in moderately symptomatic patients, but the rub is, only 1% of at least 2.3 million recovered patients have donated plasma to date. By the time Mukadam found a donor, it was too late. On April 2, Bhatkar breathed his last.
“At Cidco centre, he saw a patient die and he panicked. While he was being taken to the ICU, he wanted to speak, but couldn’t because of the oxygen mask. Everything took a toll on his mental health. He just wanted to come home,” Mukadam said.
On Monday, 1,074 new cases were reported in Navi Mumbai, taking the tally to 85,950. The city also reported four deaths, taking toll to 1,241. Active cases stand at 11,579.
The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) already had a system in place as the second wave surged in the state. Navi Mumbai which comprises eight wards and a population of 1.2 million, has been seeing close to 1,000 cases daily, on average since the beginning of April 2021. Those with mild symptoms must quarantine at home, and a doctor assigned by the NMMC’s Covid-19 war room checks on them. If a person needs to be admitted to a hospital, the area’s medical officer should be contacted, and they would arrange for a bed at the nearest Covid Care Centre. This system was put in place following the pandemic, which raged through the state last year, claiming 1,080 lives in Navi Mumbai alone.
Though the corporation’s capacity has increased – last September, for instance, the corporation had 2,856 beds, and 700 healthcare workers; by March 31, 2021, it had 3,500 beds and 1,000 healthcare workers – people like Mukadam are still dealing with the repercussions of not being able to find beds on time to save lives. In many ways, it feels like a repetition of last year’s tragedy.
The biggest challenge that the corporation faces is one of trained healthcare staff. As of now, the corporation has 891 contractual medical staff and is in the process of hiring more.
NMMC commissioner Abhijit Bangar said, “Last year around 700 staff members were hired. Now, their contracts have been renewed, but that number is still not enough. With increasing cases, we need to arrange at least 3,000 beds more. But for that we need the medical staff.”
However, Bangar pointed out that there is a marked difference between last year’s expression of the pandemic, and what the second wave seems to be presenting. “Last year the demand was more for ventilators and ICU beds. This time, with more asymptomatic and mild infection cases, the demand is more for the Covid Care Centre beds. During the last surge, of the total positive cases, around 3% used to be admitted to ICU while this year, it has come down to 1%,” he said.
All the same, the NMMC dashboard reveals that only 28% of the ICU beds are available in the city, while 10% of the isolation beds with oxygen and 49% of the isolation beds without oxygen are available. At present, 3,435 people are hospitalized in Navi Mumbai, and 11,050 are active cases.
There are three types of containment zones: In gated, housing societies, the number of cases determine whether the flat, floor or entire building would be declared as a containment zone. For independent houses, a banner comes up depending on the proximity of other houses.
“The actual barricading is done at the slums and chawls when cluster cases found. After barricading, police bandobast is provided 24/7. However, with the increasing cases, it is not possible for the police to provide bandobast in all containment areas,” Bangar said. There are 15 containment zones in type three in two wards.
Bangar said that the corporation received 40,000 Covishield vaccines from central government on April 1. On average, around 2,000 to 3,000 vaccinations took place daily in March; since April 1, when vaccination opened up for 45 year-olds and above without co-morbidities, at least 7000 vaccinations are being given daily. By April 11, 154,500 Covishield and 28,740 Covaxin vaccines had been supplied to NMMC, of which 15,000 Covaxin remained, which would be administered for the second dose starting April 12.
“While senior citizens were the most affected last time, this time the office-going age group from 20 to 50 is most affected. My vision is to have 10,000 daily vaccination but for that we need uninterrupted vaccine supply,” Bangar said.
