New Delhi (NVI): The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) Additional Municipal Commissioner (Health) Suresh Kakani has attributed dip in Case Fatality Rate (CFR) in Mumbai to better monitoring at private and municipal hospitals as part of its ‘Mission Save Lives’ launched in June.
“Although Mumbai has been reporting higher number of COVID-19 cases, the mortality rate in the city has come down over the last two months. The case fatality rate is deaths due to COVID-19 as per cent of total reported cases, has come down to 4.5 per cent as against 5.8 per cent during June,” the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Kakani in a statement elaborated that under ‘Mission Save Lives,’ a separate list of critical patients in every hospital was prepared and their treatment was monitored continuously.
“Every day, consultations were held with doctors twice through video conference, expert advice was made available through Task Force members and continuous video surveillance of serious cases was carried out. As part of the project, advanced ventilators were made available, along with the services of trained technicians, which played key role in bringing down the mortality rate” he added.
The Addl. Municipal Commissioner further said that although Mumbai is reporting higher number of COVID-19 cases, the situation in the city is under control.
He said that with the unlocking process now on, most of the service and business establishments except cinema halls, restaurants as well as schools and colleges have opened up and there is increased movement of people.
Kakani further informed that BMC has increased testing by 90 per cent and they are in the process of scaling it up even further.
The Addl. Municipal Commissioner assured that bed availability in Mumbai is satisfactory as nearly 5,500 out of 17,500 COVID beds are vacantz, adding that, nearly 10 per cent of 8,800 oxygen beds and 1,100 ventilator beds are vacant in Mumbai.
He also asserted that BMC has successfully brought down the curve in slums of Mumbai, which had posed serious challenges in the starting months and presently 70 per cent of all the reported cases are coming from apartment residents.
Kakani further stressed that public awareness plays a paramount role in controlling COVID-19 and appealed to all citizens to cultivate COVID-19 appropriate behavior.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government has also launched a direct contact campaign “Maaze Kutumb, Maazi Jababdari” (My Family, My Responsibility) aimed at effective health care education for the control of COVID-19 outbreak, Kakani said in a statement.
Under this campaign, health related information is being collected by reaching out to people directly. Currently campaign is in first phase and second phase would be initiated on October 14, he added.
Kakani stated, “5,700 teams are deployed in Mumbai for implementation with each team having 3 volunteers including representative from municipal authorities, nominee from local body representative, and civil society member would be part of team.”
“An app with geo-tagging facility has been made available to each team, so as location of house and family member details can be collated with the use of technology. This will help in achieving target set in this programme,” he added.
-RJV
