What is wrong in Mumbai? Core team to help discover

NEW DELHI: The Center has brought a high-level team to Mumbai, which is struggling to contain the spread of Covid-19. Led by the joint secretary of the ministry of health, Lav Agarwal, the team is made up of people from the ministry’s emergency medical aid wing.

The decision was made by the empowered group that coordinates the availability of hospitals, isolation and quarantine facilities, disease surveillance and testing, and critical care training, which said the city needed “high-level intervention.”

“We need senior officials from the health ministry to hold hands and see what is going wrong in Mumbai. We have to see how to improve things to be able to control the infection, ”said a senior development official. Viewed as the Achilles’ heel in India’s fight against Covid-19 despite the shutdown, Mumbai has seen a steady increase in the number of cases.

Maharashtra, which was already the most affected by the coronavirus, registered 1,233 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, bringing the state’s count to 16,758. Thirty-four deaths were recorded Thursday, bringing the number to 651.

The health ministry team will provide input on tests and containment measures that have “proven to be a difficult task for the local administration,” the official said. According to the official, Mumbai faces enormous problems and the intervention of the central team is needed.

“There is a health infrastructure problem, particularly the availability of doctors and beds in hospitals. Officials will analyze how the tests are carried out, the city’s health infrastructure and the problems facing the local administration, “he added.

Previously, a central government inter-ministerial team visited Mumbai and recommended that 2,000 to 3,000 people in Dharavi be placed in institutional quarantine because isolation of the home was not an effective containment strategy in Asia’s largest slum.

The Center team had visited the critical points of Dharavi, Wadala and Govandi.

As reported by ET, the inter-ministerial team discovered that people had to leave their homes to use the community bathroom. To address this, the team suggested that mobile toilets be installed in high containment areas.

The panel also recommended that Mumbai increase its test numbers and use volunteers to expand surveillance at hot spots. The team discussed ways to ensure the opening of hospitals for non-Covid-19 patients.