In view of a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases, the Maharashtra government has decided to set up three jumbo field hospitals in Mumbai in the next five-six weeks, city civic chief Iqbal Singh Chahal said on Monday.
Each of these medical facilities will have a capacity of 2,000 beds, including 200 ICU beds and 70 per cent oxygen beds, and they will be set up at three different locations in the city, Chahal told reporters.
He said they have also requested certain 4-star and 5 -star hotels to create CCC2 facilities (COVID-19 care centres for patients), which will be "dovetailed and run by professionals from major private hospitals".
The step has been taken to make more beds available for the needy patients by shifting those who have recovered substantially to the CCC2 facilities, which will be managed by professional doctors, the BMC commissioner said.
On Sunday, Mumbai reported 9,986 new cases of the viral infection and 79 deaths, which took its caseload to 5,20,498 and death toll to 12,023.
At present, there are 92,464 active COVID-19 cases in Mumbai, as per official data.
Chahal said the number of ICU beds in the city has been increased to 2,466, with 325 new beds added in various hospitals.
As per the online bed allotment dashboard of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), there are 19,151 beds in 141 hospitals here.
Out of the 19,151 beds, 3,777 beds in dedicated COVID-19 hospitals are currently vacant, Chahal said.
The BMC will operationalise 1,100 additional beds, including 125 ICU beds, in these medical facilities in the next seven days, he said.
The civic body has also decided to appoint nodal officers for an accurate and more proactive functioning of the 24 ward war rooms and the jumbo field hospitals from 11 pm to 7 am, Chahal said.
"The nodal officers shall function in two shifts - from 3 pm to 11 pm and 11 pm to 7 am - both at the ward war rooms and jumbo field hospitals," he said.
All laboratories conducting COVID-19 testing here have been instructed to give priority to swabs of symptomatic patients collected from homes and follow the new time schedules given to them, he added.