Mumbai: BMC asks jumbo centres for 250 beds each for kids

Jumbo Covid-19 centres have been told to set up paediatric wards. Representation pic

Boosting the city's healthcare infrastructure to fight the third wave of the pandemic, which is likely to hit the state in the next couple of months, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has instructed all the Jumbo Covid-19 Centres in the city to have paediatrics wards ready with 250 beds in each of them. Apart from this, even the dedicated Covid-19 hospitals will have a good number of beds reserved for children, who are likely to be affected the most in the third wave.

With the task force still preparing guidelines on how paediatricians would manage treatment in the third wave, a training session was conducted for the doctors to ensure that children get proper care. The officials said that this was being done, as paediatricians do not have the experience of treating Covid-19 patients, mainly because only two to three per cent of the kids were affected in the first two waves.

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A senior civic official said, "We observed that those from a lower age group were affected more in the second wave as compared to the first one, hence we are anticipating that the third wave might affect children more. We can only prepare for the worst, so we are keeping our health infrastructure on standby mode and will provide whatever care is necessary over time."

However, the civic body said that of the 250 beds that would be readied at the jumbo centres, only 10 per cent would be activated initially. This means that only 25 to 30 beds at each centre would be kept open and the rest would be activated as and when necessary. Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani confirmed the development.

According to civic officials, the paediatricians in the city will be trained and guidelines set by the task force and ICMR will be shared with them from time to time.