MUMBAI: All ward level Covid care centres have been directed to shut down. Now, the BMC has decided to have just one Covid care centre operational per zone.
The BMC has divided the city into seven zones, with 3 to 4 wards under each. For instance, in the eastern suburbs, one Covid care centre in Powai will be operational for wards L (Kurla, Saki Naka), M-East (Govandi) and M-West (Chembur). The BMC had taken over unoccupied SRA and Mhada buildings and in some places even 2- or 3-star hotels from where Covid care centres 1 and 2 (CCC-1 and CCC-2) were being operated. In the third wave, schools were not used as CCC1-2, as by then they had already resumed functioning.
At the start of the first wave, the BMC created two types of facilities—CCC-1 for suspected cases and their high risk contacts and CCC-2 for mild symptomatic and asymptomatic positive patients.
Dr Bhupendra Patil, medical health officer (MOH), M-West Ward, said currently his ward records less than five cases daily and most do not require quarantine. If needed, patients from the ward are sent to the Municipal Capacity and Research building at Chandivali, Powai. “During the peak of the pandemic, we had also taken over certain hotels which gradually stopped being used,” he said.
Dr Jitendra Jadhav, MOH, L Ward, said at the peak, the facilities came in good use. “We have seen these centres run at full capacity. Now, there are hardly any patients. If a facility is kept operational, from doctors to nurses and housekeeping to catering services—all need to be kept on. We had a CCC-2 operating from an SRA building in Sangharsh Nagar which was very helpful as it was a large facility of 734 beds and could be used for quarantine,” he said.
Dr Nitish Thakur, MOH of P-South Ward, said in the third wave as a majority of cases were from non-slum pockets there was not a heavy demand for these facilities and people preferred home isolation.
“Therefore we have started sending those in need of quarantine, if at all, to a Mhada building in the P-North Ward which was acquired for quarantine purposes. The CCC helped, especially those who were in need of quarantine but did not have the required facilities. However now with the ward seeing 5-10 cases daily, there is no request coming in for admission in these quarantine centres,” said Thakur.
