Coronavirus - Mumbai Schools To Become Quarantine Centres As COVID-19 Cases Cross 5,500

With the highest number of coronavirus cases of any Indian city at over 5,500, authorities in Mumbai are planning to convert municipal schools into quarantine facilities for COVID-19 patients.

Officials in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said they will use some of the 1,200 schools that come under it but the number has not yet been decided.

The decision to ramp up quarantine facilities was taken after a central government team visited Mumbai last week to review the administration's response to the coronavirus crisis.

Schools are well-suited for the purpose since they have adequate toilet facilities as well and they are currently closed, a BMC officer told NDTV.

Other than the schools, the BMC is also looking at setting up facilities on major grounds in the city.

For that, the BMC commissioner Praveen Pardeshi on Sunday visited the NESCO exhibition ground at Goregaon to oversee the preparations.

The civic body says that NESCO can house 1,200 beds. Another facility that is being checked by the commissioner is the MMRDA exhibition ground in the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC). Here, a 3,000 bed facility can be prepared.

These centres are being considered for providing quarantine to asymptomatic patients.

With 395 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, taking the total number of the infected patients in the country's financial capital rose to 5,589, the BMC said.

The city also reported 15 new fatalities due to the COVID-19 disease, taking the number of deaths so far to 219, the civic body said in a release.

Looking at the seriousness of the condition, the central government team had advised the authorities to significantly increase its existing facilities in order to accommodate more patients.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, in his address to the state on Sunday, also said that about 80 per cent of COVID-19 patients are asymptomatic.