99% ICU Beds, 94% Ventilators In Use As COVID-19 Cases Spike In Mumbai

Intensive Care Units (ICUs) in Mumbai, the city worst-affected by the novel coronavirus outbreak, are operating at 99 per cent capacity and 94 per cent of ventilators in the city are currently in use, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said on Saturday.

As of June 11, Mumbai had 1,181 beds in ICUs across the city. Of these, 1,167 have been occupied, leaving only 14 beds for new patients. 497 of the 530 ventilators - a machine that takes over the body's breathing process when the lungs have failed - are in use, the BMC said, as are 3,986 (or 76 per cent) of the 5,260 available oxygen beds.

Across the city there are a further 10,450 beds in Dedicated COVID Hospitals (DCH) and Dedicated COVID Health Centres (DCHC) to treat patients classified as either "moderately ill" or "severely ill". Of these, 9,098 beds (or 87 per cent) are occupied.

Today's active #COVID19 positive cases within @mybmc are 28163 and total discharged cases are 25152. And here is Mumbai COVID19 status of yesterday 11th June. Doubling rate is now 25 days and average daily growth rate has gone down to 2.76%. pic.twitter.com/wLYJUJtVql

— Ashwini Bhide (@AshwiniBhide) June 12, 2020

Mumbai, the country's financial capital, has reported over 55,000 COVID-19 cases and 2,044 deaths so far; 1,366 fresh infections and 90 deaths were confirmed over a 24-hour period on Friday evening.

On Tuesday the city crossed the 51,000-mark to surpass numbers reported by the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the COVID-19 pandemic originated in December last year.

As the number of cases continues to climb - the doubling rate in Mumbai is 25 days - officials have expressed concern over the strain on already stressed medical infrastructure.

According to government officials, Mumbai hospitals have been instructed to adhere to admission and discharge guidelines and only admit severely symptomatic patients. However, BMC officials have said the number of available beds will increase.

Ashwini Bhide, BMC Additional Municipal Commissioner, tweeted: "Medical infrastructure is also getting augmented. It has already (been) augmented in (the) last two months and further planning and implementation is also in progress".

The spike in cases, in Mumbai and Maharashtra (1.01 lakh cases, 3,717 deaths), comes as the state takes cautious steps towards easing the coronavirus lockdown. It has allowed all government offices to function with 15 per cent employees, while private offices can work with 10 per cent of staff.

Self-employed individuals, such as plumbers and electricians, have also been allowed to re-start work, providing they follow mandatory social distancing and safety norms.

However, the state has yet to open religious places, shopping malls, hotels and restaurants, all of which have started functioning in other parts of the country.

India now has over three lakh confirmed COVID-19 cases with 8,884 deaths linked to the virus. It is the fourth worst-affected country, with only the United States (20.5 lakh cases), Brazil (8.29 lakh cases) and Russia (5.11 lakh cases) reporting more infections.