As the city managed itself to get out of the first wave of COVID-19, it did not know that the second wave was waiting for it, in the new year.
After the new year, the city was opened a bit with partial re-opening of local trains. However, after the onslaught of COVID-19, the government had to close down everything.
Managing the cases in the city, especially in the densely populated slums of the city was a task, However, the civic body was successful in the battle.
So, here's how Mumbai fought COVID-19 in 2021:
Amid a major crisis of medical oxygen in the country during the second wave, the Supreme Court had praised the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for its handling of the COVID-19 situation in Mumbai.
This also came in the wake of the financial capital seeing a downward trend in its daily coronavirus cases when the country wasn't showing the trend. "Bombay Municipal Corporation has done some remarkable work and not disrespecting Delhi but we can maybe see what was done by BMC," Justice Chandrachud had said.
Now, one might wonder as to why Mumbai was handling its second wave better than Delhi. The report in the international weekly newspaper The Economist has credited the "sensible administrative structure, decentralisation and data-driven planning" for the same.
The article had noted that the coordinated efforts through a distributed network of 23 BMC war rooms have led to efficient bed management.
While explaining the difference in the handling of the second wave by Delhi and Mumbai authorities, it mentioned that the unified chain of command in Mumbai contrasting to overlapping authorities in Delhi led to better management in the case of Mumbai.
In the case of Delhi, the article noted that Delhi’s disadvantages maybe because of its neighbours. "The city spills over its borders to take in the most urbanised bits of two states with much worse health care," the article noted while elaborating on the effect of the influx of patients from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to Delhi.
