Mumbai sees bed rationing again as coronavirus cases rise sharply

With Covid-19 cases surging across Maharashtra and also in Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to manage over 2200 beds in 69 private hospitals in the city.

The daily Covid tally in Maharashtra eased to 31,643 cases on Monday, against 40,414 new coronavirus cases on Sunday —two-thirds of the national tally of 68,020. The state has already tightened travel restrictions and imposed night curfew, and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has warned of a fresh lockdown.

Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra has criticised the plan for a lockdown in Maharashtra, saying such a move would hurt migrants and small businesses. “The problem, @OfficeofUT ji, is that the people a lockdown hurts most are the poor, migrant workers & small businesses. The original lockdowns were essentially to buy time to build up hospital/health infrastructure. Let’s focus on resurrecting that & on avoiding mortality (sic)," he tweeted.

In the neighbouring Karna­taka, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said the government banned all kinds of protests in the state for 15 days, but ruled out any lockdown for now. 

With cases jumping in Mum­bai, the BMC has also decided to place the order for procuring 150,000 injections of antiviral drug Rem­desivir and other medical equipment to avoid any potential shortage of medicines at hospitals, a senior official said.