The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has on Friday directed the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) to hand over the Wankhede Stadium in the city and it will be used as a COVID-19 quarantine facility.
"We have received a formal request from the BMC to hand over the Wankhede as quarantine facility and the members have had a discussion where we have agreed to support them with facilities of MCA," sources within the MCA told ANI.
The BMC, in a letter, has also told the MCA that the possession will be temporary it will be used for emergency staff of the BMC and also to quarantine coronavirus positive but asymptomatic patients.
The iconic cricket stadium, located in Churchgate, hosted the 2011 Cricket World Cup Final in which India lifted the coveted trophy by defeating Sri Lanka.
Earlier, the Mumbai Cricket Association had donated Rs 50 lakhs to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund and Rs 50 lakhs through BCCI to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund towards the fight against coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has undertaken a programme of massive augmentation of hospitals beds, officials said on Friday.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray inspected a huge 1,000-plus bed COVID Care Centre-2 that has come up at the NESCO Complex in Goregaon suburb.
The BMC has categorized the programme in three parts -- CCC, Dedicated Covid Health Centres (DCHC) and Dedidated Covid Hospitals (DCH) -- to take care of the anticipated additional load over the next few weeks.
In Mumbai, three jumbo facilities are coming up in Bandra Kurla Complex, NESCO and another Global Impact Hub, in Thane.
The BMC, through its Assistant Municipal Commissioners in 24 wards, has already taken over 180-plus sites such as hotels, lodges, marriage halls, gymkhana, schools and colleges for setting up institutional quarantine for at least 12,000 people.
To handle more cases, the BMC has added 25 hospitals with 1,139 beds for severe cases, and 2,000 beds in private hospitals.
Meanwhile, 16,738 COVID-19 cases have been reported in the city and the death toll on Friday is 621.
(With inputs from Agencies)
