The suburban facility discharged its last three patients on Saturday with a warm send-off
The patients were felicitated by the staff. Pic/Rajesh Gupta
The Mulund Jumbo Covid centre on Saturday discharged its last three patients. The centre was constructed in July 2020 to cater to the large number of Covid cases reported from Mulund, Bhandup and Thane. The centre until now has treated more than 15,000 patients. It will be dismantled today.
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With the decline in Covid-19 cases in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to shut down its jumbo Covid centres across the city. These include Dahisar, NESCO in Goregaon, Mulund and Kanjurmarg. The decision to shut down the centres has been taken amid the sharp decline in Covid-19 cases since the third wave.
The Mulund Jumbo Covid centre was inaugurated in July 2020 to cater to the residents of eastern Mumbai. The centre had 1,708 beds, including 98 ICU beds. “The centre became functional and within a couple of weeks, we started seeing a surge in patients. We managed it well, but the number [of patients] was so high that we had to work day and night,” said Dr Abhay Naik, its deputy dean. A similar situation unfolded in the second wave, he added. “Those were tough days.”
All the jumbo centres have already stopped taking new admissions and the Mulund one was the last to discharge its three patients. The patients were felicitated and given a warm send-off by the staff at the centre. The Mulund centre reported 286 deaths through the three waves. Out of around 700 staff, 16 got infected with the virus and eventually recovered.
“As health officials, we are happy to save so many lives. We worked hard as a team, going without leave for many months. Some [of our staff] got infected, some fell seriously ill, but it didn’t shake our morale,” said Dr Pradeep Angre, dean of the facility.