India has recorded more than 3 lakh COVID-19 cases till date. Of these, nearly a third have been recorded in Maharashtra, which crossed the one lakh mark on Friday. Within the state, the muximum number of cases have been recorded in the capital city.
As per data given by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai in it's daily bulletin, Mumbai has recorded 56,740 positive cases till date. Of these, 28,682 cases remain active.
But with an increasing number of people testing positive, the city now faces the alarming prospect of running out of beds and facilities for patients. Earlier in June, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar had said that only those in facing an emergency condition should get hospital beds.
"Only those who are in critical and emergency conditions should get beds in hospitals. As soon as people test positive, they think they need a bed but that is not how it works. There is a lot of pressure on hospitals," she had been quoted as saying by news agency ANI. There have also been videos purportedly shot at the city's hospitals that show patients sharing beds due to a lack of available space.
Against this backdrop, on Saturday evening Additional Municipal Commissioner Ashwini Bhide took to Twitter sharing data from the BMC's dedicated COVID-19 website that suggests that a vast majority of available facilities may have already been occupied.
According to a summarized sheet that provides all COVID-19 data pertaining to the city, as of 1:00 pm on June 13, 98% of ICU beds were occupied, while 96% of ventilators were occupied. Going by these percentages, there remained 20 free ICU beds (out of 1,197) and 23 free ventilators (out of 538).
In various parts of Mumbai there are dedicated COVID-19 Hospitals (DCH) and dedicated COVID-19 Health Centres (DCHC). These too are nearing capacity. These hospitals which treat patients who are "moderately" or "severely" ill people now have 88% of their beds (out of a total 10,567) occupied.
As per the BMC data, 77% of the 5,325 oxygen beds are also occupied.
