Maharashtra urban development minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday chaired an urgent meeting of municipal commissioners, district collectors and CEOs of zilla parishads from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to take stock of the preparedness in the wake of the new COVID-19 variant. He directed them to conduct civil and fire audits of COVID-19 health centres and hospitals.
The minister also asked the administration to undertake thorough checking of the ICUs, ventilators, oxygen plants and supply equipment in these facilities and ensure that they are operational and in proper condition.
Shinde said even though the number of coronavirus patients are declining, the administration should not become complacent. He asked the administration to curb the crowding of people and expressed serious displeasure over people not wearing masks.
He directed all officials to step up awareness campaigns urging the citizens to wear masks, use sanitizer and avoid large gatherings. Shinde directed the BMC to get the list of newly arrived passengers from 10 high-risk countries from the Airport Authority of India and make it available to other municipal corporations, which he said should hold regular meetings for areas under their jurisdiction.
