Within two weeks, Mumbai will have a 1,500-bed isolation centre at the recently-converted quarantine facility at SevenHills Hospital, in Marol. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which gave its final nod to the project on Tuesday, said this would be the biggest Covid-19 isolation centre in the country.
With a growing number of reported Covid-19 cases in Mumbai, the BMC and state authorities are looking to set up large isolation centres, instead of smaller ones, to curb the possible spread of the Sars-Cov-2 which causes Covid-19. With 1,500 beds, Seven Hills Hospital will be the biggest isolation facility in India, said the BMC. “We already have 350 quarantine beds at the hospital and another 100 isolation beds. But in the next 10-15 days, we will extend the isolation bed facilities to 1,500 at the hospital itself,” said Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner (health) BMC. Of the 1,500 beds, 100 will have ventilators.
BMC also plans to hire 1,000 nurses to work at the centre and 500 nurses will work in three daily shifts once the centre is operational.
HT had previously reported that the BMC had converted Seven Hills Hospital, which was shut down in 2018, into a 350-bed screening and isolation centre over 60 hours. It became operational as a screening centre on March 18. At present, 145 suspected patients are quarantined at Seven Hills Hospital, which also collects samples to send to Kasturba Hospital for testing. Dr Mohan Joshi, who has been in-charge of the hospital since it was re-opened in March, is among those quarantined.
{{/usCountry}}HT had previously reported that the BMC had converted Seven Hills Hospital, which was shut down in 2018, into a 350-bed screening and isolation centre over 60 hours. It became operational as a screening centre on March 18. At present, 145 suspected patients are quarantined at Seven Hills Hospital, which also collects samples to send to Kasturba Hospital for testing. Dr Mohan Joshi, who has been in-charge of the hospital since it was re-opened in March, is among those quarantined.
{{/usCountry}}Mumbai currently has 2,000 isolation beds — 1,000 in civic-run hospitals and rest in private and the government-run hospitals. The BMC is working on a plan to expand these facilities too. “Due to cancellation of non-emergency services, several beds are vacant which can be used for isolation both in private and government sectors. In KEM alone, we have 2,000 isolation beds,” said Dr Avinash Supe, former dean of KEM Hospital.
A tender to revamp the civic-run Kasturba Hospital will be floated in the next few days, said additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani. “We have two wards — 13 and 15 — which are exclusively used for the treatment of epidemic outbreaks. We will first redevelop ward 15 and then we will start with ward 13,” said Kakani.
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