Mumbai: Covid war rooms to stay, will operate 24/7 for general admissions

The BMC will continue to operate its Covid war rooms to procure beds in civic-run hospitals and to arrange ambulances.

Covid war rooms were set up in all 24 administrative wards for the benefit of citizens who faced insurmountable difficulties in procuring hospital beds and ambulances at the peak of the pandemic. These centres also helped families get patient details from hospitals and Covid centres.

During the pandemic, it was mandatory to admit patients to hospitals through these Covid war rooms as this helped the civic body get real time data of patients and their problems. Officials said it helped the BMC draw up plans to fight coronavirus in Mumbai. 

Now that the infection is largely under control, the future of these war rooms is being questioned. A senior BMC officer said, “We have decided to keep these war rooms in service for procuring beds and getting medical guidance.”

Officials said these war rooms will function 24x7. Anyone can call the on-duty executive to talk about medical conditions and health problems. They will be directed to the nearest hospital and arrangement for an ambulance would be made, if needed.

These war rooms were earlier manned by disaster management teams but changed to contractual staff after the number of Covid patients started dwindling. Later, the BMC also let go some contractual workers after completion of their tenure. The civic body now plans to appoint new full-time staff to handle the war rooms.