State setting up hospital in city to tackle future outbreaks: CM

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said the Maharashtra government is setting up a jumbo hospital in or around Mumbai to counter virus outbreaks in the future,

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said the Maharashtra government is setting up a jumbo hospital in or around Mumbai to counter virus outbreaks in the future, which will be equipped with facilities for research, treatment and vaccine development. He said the government was also planning an immunology laboratory and research centre in the city. The CM has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi for supporting the jumbo hospital project in the city.

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Speaking during the online inauguration of the state-of-the-art testing facility in Mumbai by Modi, Thackeray said Covid-19 would not be the final virus for the world and that governments should be prepared for more outbreaks in the next two to five years. “The coronavirus has not attacked us all of a sudden. We have been facing various viruses in the last eight to 10 years and those were indications for us human beings. The attacks of SARS, H1N1, Ebola, Zika in the last few years were underestimated by us. To be prepared for more such attacks in the future, we are planning the hospital and research centre with the hope that we will not go through the same ‘pause’ mode we are in now,” Thackeray said.

Thackeray also requested Modi to continue supply of N95 masks and PPE kits even after September.

“We have been aggressively tracking patients through our ‘chase the virus’ mantra and have been treating them at our jumbo facilities. Our jumbo facility at Mumbai was set up in just 20 days. More such facilities are coming up in other cities like Pune. I will request the Centre to continue the supply of masks and PPE kits even after the September deadline,” he said.

Maharashtra has 2,665 Covid-19 dedicated centres and hospitals with 3.06 lakh isolation beds, 42,813 oxygen and 11,882 ICU beds. The state has 3,744 ventilators, 7.07 lakh PPE kits and 12.59 lakh PPE kits

The high throughput Covid-19 facility at the National Institute of Research in Reproductive Health, Parel Mumbai enables 1,200 tests a day without minimum human intervention.

The reports are available faster compared to the existing labs, the statement by the chief minister’s office said.