Mumbai: Mumbai's P North has risen to become the ward with the highest number of active Covid-19 cases in Mumbai but at the same time, nearly 84 per cent of the beds in the Covid Care Centre 2 (CCC) facilities of the ward are lying vacant.
The P North ward covers Malad, Malvani, Marve, Manori and Aksa and is the most densely populated ward amongst all the 24 wards that comes under the jurisdiction of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Presently, P-North has 1,502 active cases and in total 4,856 cases have been reported from this ward so far. The doubling rate of P North is 66 days and the growth rate of this ward is 1.1 per cent.
Since the Coronavirus pandemic broke out, the BMC had set up three-tier care systems for treating the COVID-19 infected patients.
On top of the tier, there are dedicated hospitals where Covid-19 infected patients are being treated, followed by CCC facilities at the bottom. The CCC facilities are furthermore divided into two categories -1 and 2. The CCC1 facilities are hotels, lodges and halls which are being transformed into isolation wards and are meant to house suspected asymptomatic patients and doesn't have round the clock medical facilities, while in CCC2 facilities positive patients with symptoms are being kept.
The CCC2 facilities in this ward have the capacity of 352 beds out of which only 56 (16 per cent) are occupied.
BMC officials said that more than 70 per cent of the positive patient who were infected with the virus hailed from slum areas or congested pockets of the city. Since June this year, the number of cases in the slum areas have started to fall, which led to more availability of beds.
"Now that most of the positive patients are hailing from housing societies and residential buildings, the BMC is favouring the idea of keeping them at their homes considering they have adequate rooms and facilities for self-isolation which is why fewer people are being shifted to the CCC facilities," Deputy Municipal Commissioner (DMC), Parag Masurkar told FPJ.
"People living in chawls doesn't have the luxury of self-isolation at home as more than five people stay inside the compact chawls in the slum areas and that's why they were taken to CCC facilities. However, now nearly 90 per cent of the cases are being reported from high rises leading," Masurkar stated.
The number of high rises and gated apartments in both the eastern and western side of P North ward is higher when compared to the slums. Also, many residential complexes and housing societies have made their own isolation ward in the society premises in the last one month.
"Many housing societies and residential complexes have transformed their gyms, halls and playing areas into isolation wards, where they are treating the patients who are not in critical condition. This is why, fewer people are being admitted to the CCC facilities nowadays," stated Geeta Bhandari, BJP corporator, P North ward.
Meanwhile, both A and B wards have the lowest number of Covid-19 cases in the city. However, 50 per cent of the CCC2 facilities of both these wards are now occupied.
A ward comprises of Cuffe Parade, Colaba and Churchgate areas. This ward has 225 active cases and total 2,466 cases have been reported from this ward so far and 51 per cent of the beds in the CCC2 facilities in this ward are now being occupied.
