Plans for mega Covid-19 facilities in Mumbai, deferred; thanks to Omicron

The Kanjurmarg jumbo centre. File pic

Not willing to drop guard against Omicron, the BMC has deferred its plan on the future of jumbo COVID centres in the city despite paying daily rent of more than Rs 10 lakh each for them. Earlier, it was supposed to take a call by mid-December, but the corporation will now wait for at least one more month, said officials. Rent apart, it also incurs expenses for electricity, maintenance and staff payment.

The city's jumbo centres have been a topic of debate, considering that they are nearly empty. Mumbai has nine such facilities that came up as the civic body ramped up capacity to accommodate COVID patients during the first and second waves.

The BMC paid Rs 10 crore towards three months' rent for the Dahisar COVID centre, which is now closed, and spent Rs 12 crore on rent for three months on the Mulund centre which has 15 to 20 patients. Corporators have raised the huge cost attached to these near-empty facilities.

"We keep only five out of nine centres running. Even in these five centres, only a few wards are operational to reduce maintenance and electricity charges. We also cut spending on staff ," said Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner of the BMC. As the city has seen new Omicron cases, he said, "The real situation may surface by mid or end of January due to social gatherings for the New Year and a surge in international passengers during the next two weeks."

Amid and after the second wave, the BMC had increased beds at the jumbo centres from 7,500 to 15,000 by adding three new centres and upgrading the old ones. To the relief of citizens and civic officials, the COVID numbers haven't gone up after Diwali. Barely 300 beds are occupied at present.

Of the nine facilities set up to handle the surge of patients, the MMRDA-built facility with 2,160 beds at Malad, CIDCO-built centre at Kanjurmarg with 2,000 beds and the 2,316-bed BKC centre are not functional now. Currently, SevenHills, NSCI Worli, NESCO- Goregaon and Mulund are admitting patients. SevenHills has around 200 patients.