In view of the alarming spike in Covid-19 cases, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) has decided to make attempts towards increasing the number of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds as well as normal beds in the private hospitals that are handling Covid cases in the twin-city.
While the number of active cases had jumped to 4,023 till Thursday night, around 58 per cent of them are getting themselves treated in accordance with home isolation protocols. Apart from four public health care facilities including two dedicated Covid Health Centers (DCHC) and two Covid Care Centers (CCC) in operation, 22 private hospitals have been roped in to treat Covid patients. However, fears of a further surge in the number of fresh detections in coming days, coupled by comparatively lower recoveries has enhanced worries for the civic administration.
“Private health care facilities, especially the bigger ones, have adequate space and required medicos on the virtue of which their bed capacity can easily be increased. We are chalking out a proposal to initiate a single-window clearance system, so that hospitals get the required permissions and NOC’s to enhance bed capacity in their establishments without any inconvenience,” confirmed deputy mayor Hasmukh Gehlot.
MBMC’s health department is also working round-the-clock to enhance facilities at all public healthcare facilities, however, increasing bed capacity is a herculean task owing to limited staff strength. The paucity of intensive care units (ICU) and ventilator beds is another point of concern for the MBMC. With an average of 350 to 400 people testing positive on a daily basis per day for the past nearly a fortnight, admissions to hospitals have shot up and the bed capacity will soon fall short, officials said.
Meanwhile 400 more people tested positive on Thursday. With the latest additions the number of cumulative positive cases and active cases has jumped to 36,580 and 4,023 respectively. With six more casualties, the total death count has mounted to 885.
