The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Iqbal Chahal on Monday said that authorities would add more beds to Intensive Care Units in Mumbai according to reports.

The administration will add 300 additional beds in Intensive Care Units (ICU) in Mumbai by June 27 and a further 200 ICU beds by July 5, Chahal said as per a CNN News18 report.

The BMC commissioner was responding to a report by CNN NEws18 on the unavailability of beds in Mumbai hospitals. Multiple hospitals, when contacted directly, had claimed unavailability of beds for Covid-19 patients in Mumbai as per the report.

Chahal, responding to the report had urged people to contact Covid-19 war rooms rather than contacting the hospitals directly. The administration has assigned ward-wise war rooms for bed allotment as per reports.

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People must call BMC helplines rather than calling the hospitals directly, Chahal had said as per the report.

Hospitals may tell the patient that the beds are unavailable as all beds are with the BMC. The decentralized bed allotment system of the municipal agency leaves no scope for the patients to call the hospitals directly to get a bed, Chahal had said in response to the report in a video shared by CNN News18 on Twitter. All 35 major private hospitals are on the BMC’s dashboard currently, he added.

The BMC commissioner said that the administration guarantees beds for symptomatic patients in a short time of one to two hours when needed. However, it will require a few more days to ensure 20-25 per cent vacancy in BMC hospitals at any given point in time.

However, no beds will be provided for asymptomatic patients of Covid-19 in adherence to the guidelines issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Chahal had said as per the report.

Apart from this, the municipal organization also rolled out a new action plan to curb the spread of Covid-19 in the city, especially in the northern suburbs of Mumbai.

The areas include Borivali and Dahisar, among others, India Today reported.

It has also made the rules in the containment zones more stringent. Apart from this, BMC will also conduct a door-to-door survey for tracking the spread of the disease, the report said.

Mumbai has reported over 66,000 cases of Covid-19 till date as per reports.

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