Temporary Covid-19 centres getting dismantled amid signs pandemic is ending

About 92% of cases in India are said to be having mild disease. In only 5.8% of cases oxygen therapy is required, intensive care in only 1.7% cases

The temporary Covid-19 centre at Mulund in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai, which once housed 1,650 beds, now wears a deserted look. Barring a few security personnel and packers coming in to pick up equipment from the facility, this once busy centre is now an empty stretch of land on the Richardson and Cruddas factory premises.
 

“This place started operations in July 2020, and during the peak, we used to help admit 150-200 Covid-19 patients. We handled the patients with our own hands every day,” says a security guard at the centre.
 

Abhay Naik, dean of the Mulund facility, says that a bulk of the equipment has been moved out to public hospitals in the city. “The hospitals have raised indents for the material they need, and much of it has been moved there. Some have also been sent to the Seven Hills Hospital (a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation facility). The remaining would be sent to upcoming BMC hospitals in the city,” Naik says.
 

One can spot a few hundred hospital beds stacked up in one corner, waiting to be shipped to a hospital.
 

BMC Additional Comm¬issioner, Health, Sanjeev Kumar says that all the nine jumbo Covid-19 centres in Mumbai that housed more than 12,000 beds are all being dismantled. “These facilities started making inventories of their stock of medicines and equipment. We have dispatched some to public hospitals in the city. We are also talking to the health department in the state government to understand their immediate requirement,” Kumar explains. BMC plans to dispatch sensitive equipment like ventilators immediately as storing them in warehouses may cause them to malfunction.
 

Seven Hills Hospital in Andheri still has 1,850 Covid-19 beds, a 300-bed ICU and 198 ventilator-equipped beds.
 

The city administration is confident that it would be able to tackle any potential spike in cases in the coming months with the existing hospital infrastructure, indicating that the pandemic may be behind us. The idea to dismantle the makeshift centres was taken around March, but the spike in cases during June-July led to delays. Some facilities were reactivated at that time.

Fresh daily hospital admissions are very low now. On October 10, only 11 patients had to be hospitalised while a mere 60 of the 18,475 available beds are occupied now.
 

It’s not only Mumbai, which is doing away with temporary Covid-19 centres.
 

According to the annual report of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2021-22, about 92 per cent of the cases in India were reported to be mild. In only about 5.8 per cent of the cases was oxygen therapy required, and the disease may be severe enough to require intensive care in only 1.7 per cent cases.
 

The top five states with the highest number of Covid-19 cases are Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
 

Among the states, Tamil Nadu had created the maximum number of around 100,000 makeshift beds during the peak of Covid-19, strengthening its line of defence. It entrusted local bodies to take a call on how to dismantle the facilities and also distribute the equipment. Makeshift centres at public buildings, schools, colleges and trade centres were handed over to the respective institutions.
 

“Mostly it was done by local bodies, including Chennai Corporation. Things like cots and mattresses and medical equipment like oxygen concentrators are being used in the government institutions, including public health centres,” said T S Selvavinayagam, director of public health and preventive medicine in Tamil Nadu.
 

Karnataka, too, had installed a 2,000-bed makeshift ICU ventilator hospital in Bengaluru. The state had also lined up 250-bedded centres in Mysuru, Hubballi, Bidar, Belagavi and Shivamogga.
 

Shuchin Bajaj, founder director, Ujala Cygnus Group of Hospitals in Delhi, said the 1,000-bed facility in the national capital that they ran was non-functional for the past six months.

• 9 Covid19 jumbo centres in Mumbai had over 12,000 beds 
• Mumbai facilities had oxygenated beds, ICU beds etc 
• 60 out of 18,000 Covid-19 beds in Mumbai occupied only
• TN had created infra for 100,000 makeshift beds
• Only 5.8% Covid-19 patients need oxygen support