umbai: as number of Coronavirus positive patients is increasing, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is all set to upscale the quarantine facility across the city. Currently, the city has around 450 quarantine beds, the same will be increased to over 2000 very soon, senior BMC officials informed.
Currently, Kasturba Gandhi Hospital, which is the main quarantine centre in the city, has 100 beds. In view of the increasing number of Covid-19 cases, the civic body converted the Seven Hills Hospital – which was dysfunctional – into a 350-bedded quarantine facility, taking the total number of quarantine facility in the city to 450 beds.
According to the information provided by BMC, it is spending Rs 1,000 for each suspected patient kept under observation at Seven Hills Hospital. The civic body is looking at increasing the quarantine beds at Seven Hills Hospital from 350 to 500 by the end of the week. "The idea is to have more quarantine facility so that we can accommodate more and more people.
Some of the travellers who are tested negative but need to be in-home quarantine here are not Mumbai residents. While we are working out on the transportation of people residing 300 km from Mumbai, we can try and accommodate others who are residents and cannot go home and need to be on self-isolation for 14 days," Suresh Kakani, Additional Municipal Commissioner of BMC told the Free Press Journal. Kakani confirmed that the civic body is expediting the work of upscaling quarantine facilities in the city.
"From around 400 to 450 beds we have for quarantined patients, we are planning to increase the number to 2000 beds at municipal and private facilities, this excludes four medical college hospitals in the city," added Kakani.
The BMC has already tied up with two hotels near Mumbai’s international airport – Hotel Mirage and ITC Maratha –to create quarantine facilities. Travellers who wish to stay in the hotel for self-isolation can avail the services at a fixed rate. The BMC is also getting in touch with other hotels to create similar facilities.
Apart from this, civic body has this week acquired a two-storey maternity and nursing home in Bandra to turn into a quarantine facility. The nursing home has been cleaned and made ready to be a quarantine facility, where operations may begin shortly, in coordination with Limavady hospital. "
We have acquired the vacant nursing home under the accommodation reservation clause. Lilavati Hospital management has agreed to help us with medical facilities, while BMC will provide the housekeeping staff. The civic body is leaving no stone unturned to sanitise the city during the 21 days lockdown.
"We are utilising this lockdown period in every possible way, we had started with spraying disinfectants in Hospitals, we are gradually moving on too other public places such as railway stations, bus stops, BMC markets etc.
Meanwhile, the civic body is contacting around 1261 people who have completed their home quarantine period on March 23, the civic body could reach out around 641 and found out that only 7 of these 641 people were symptomatic and have been sent for coronavirus test.
