Mumbai: Only 152 of 10K active jumbo beds occupied

The Jumbo Covid Care Centre at Kanjurmarg is among the four facilities kept on standby in the wake of the third wave threat. Pic/Anurag Ahire

Merely 152 of over 10,000 beds at five active jumbo Covid Care Centres were occupied as on Thursday, leaving more than 9,800 vacancies. Moreover, the BMC has reserved 6,500 more beds at four other jumbo facilities amid the threat of a third wave.

The jumbo centres, temporary facilities set up to provide treatment to Covid-19 patients, proved extremely helpful in the first and second waves. After the devastating second wave between March and May, the BMC increased beds at jumbo centres and developed three new ones. The bed capacity increased to more than 15,000 from 7,500.

With active cases continuing to drop, the occupancy rate of beds at Covid centres has come down to 10 per cent, but jumbo centres are almost vacant. The city currently has 4,101 active patients, including 2,173 asymptomatic and 1,628 symptomatic At NSCI, Worli, the first jumbo centre started in April 2020, had only 45 patients. The BKC facility with over 2,300 beds has only 13 patients. Only 43 of the 3,700 beds at NESCO centre, Goregaon, were occupied as on Thursday.

Mulund and Byculla jumbo centres, with over 1,700 beds each, have occupancy rate of one per cent. The four other centres kept on standby are at Dahisar with 950 beds, Malad with 2,160 beds, Kanjurmarg with 2,000 beds. A centre in Sion, with about 1,200 beds, is still not complete .

"We have kept the four centres ready for the third wave. It is a good sign that cases are not increasing even after two months of reopening the city. But we will keep them operational till December end," said Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner of the BMC.

SevenHills Hospital at Andheri, the first dedicated Covid hospital, has a bed occupancy rate of 20 per cent. "Out of 1,850 beds in the hospital, 366 are occupied, including 103 ICU beds, ‘' said Dr Balkrishna Adsul, dean of the hospital. Since last year, the hospital has treated 37,383 Covid-19 patients.