Though Mumbai has seen a rise in its number of active COVID-19 cases, its mortality rate seems to have dipped.
BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Additional Municipal Commissioner (Health) Suresh Kakani, on Friday, informed that the mortality rate of Mumbai due to COVID-19 has come down to 4.5 per cent against 5.8 per cent in June. Kakani attributed the success to the civic body's Mission Save Lives campaign. Under the campaign, a separate list of critical patients, which included senior citizens and patients with comorbidities were prepared and these patients were kept under strict surveillance by expert doctors. "Consultations were held with doctors twice through video conference and continuous video surveillance was carried out by task force members," stated Kakani.
He also maintained that 10 per cent of the oxygen beds and nearly 1,100 ventilator beds are vacant in the city. "The slum areas of Mumbai posed a serious challenge to us during the months of April and May, when the cases were at its peak. The curve in the slum areas now has been brought down by 70 per cent," stated the municipal officer.
He also highlighted that the only way the civic body was able to control the spread of the virus was through aggressive testing. He stated that the same would be implemented in high rises as well.
Municipal Chief Iqbal Singh Chahal also asserted that there is no second wave of the infection in the city. "There is no second wave of COVID-19 infections in Mumbai. The cases have increased because there has been an increase in the testing capacity. Mumbai is witnessing nearly 15,000 tests per day. Earlier, only 7,000 tests used to be conducted per day," said Chahal, also maintaining that BMC is planning to conduct nearly 20,000 tests per day.
Likening the situation to a game of cricket, Chahal stated it's not how many balls a batsman faces, but not losing a wicket that is important.
"The death rate presently stands at 4.5 per cent, which was brought down from a higher level. Now, we plan to bring down the death rate to 2.2 per cent," stated the municipal chief.
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