Heena Sharma Blog

The COVID-19 situation "is in control" in Mumbai with the number of positive cases daily being reported below 1,500, a senior official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has said. Everyday, 6,000 to 7,000 tests are being done and most of the citizens are following the safety protocols, additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani told PTI. The city has been daily reporting less than 1,500 COVID-19 cases since the last many days. "The situation is in control," Kakani said. After the outbreak of COVID-19 in the city, the BMC focussed on slum pockets by tracing high risk contacts and sending them to quarantine centres, and if they tested positive, they were kept at isolation facilities, he said. Read More

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation will purchase 100,000 antigen testing kits to ensure speedy results for suspected Covid-19 patients , an official said on Wednesday. According to a release issued on Tuesday, the civic body has initiated Mission Universal Testing, under which it will use ICMR-approved antigen testing kits that provide results within 15 to 30 minutes. These kits will be used at all civic, state-run hospitals and Covid-19 treatment facilities to test suspected patients and ensure timely treatment, the release stated. At present, RT-PCR tests are being used to detect infections, but the results of antigen tests will be comparatively faster, the civic body said. Read More

As the number of Covid-19 cases is rapidly surging in Mumbai, almost all intensive care unit (ICU) beds for the Covid-19 patients are occupied here, as per Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) data. As of May 27, of the 645 ICU beds, 99 per cent were occupied while a total of 65 per cent of the 4,292 beds with oxygen support were occupied. Seventy-two per cent of 373 ventilators were in use. A total of 1,438 people tested positive for coronavirus in Mumbai on Thursday taking the total number of cases in the city to 35,273. The metropolitan city reported 38 deaths on the day due to the disease. Read More

It’s a case of lockdown within the lockdown. The Mumbai administration has identified 191 containment zones in the city, which has seen a surge in coronavirus cases in the past few days amid a nationwide lockdown, to contain the spread of the infection. A containment zone is one where someone is found positive for Covid-19. Such area is considered contaminated and is sealed off. The residents of that area are asked not to step out of their homes. The health ministry has said even a single case of Covid-19 can be a hotspot for the government. The number of containment zones spread across both the eastern and western suburbs of Mumbai increased from 146 to 191 by the end of Wednesday. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has demarcated these areas, which have seen multiple cases of Covid-19 positive cases. Entry to these areas is restricted and violation is punishable under law. Read More

Two persons were killed and three injured after a four-storey residential building collapsed in south Mumbai's congested Dongri area Tuesday, trapping about 40 to 50 people under the debris, civic officials said. TV channels showed dramatic visuals of a child, wrapped in a cloth bundle, being carried out of the debris by rescue workers. There was no word about the child's condition. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has opened a shelter at Imamwada Municipal Secondary Girls' School after the building collapse, a civic official said. "A team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is reaching the spot. We are assuming that 10 to 12 families are still under the debris," Mumbadevi MLA Amin Patel told reporters at the spot. The building was owned by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) and its officials reached the site to assess the situation. Another legislator Bhai Jagtap said residents had been complainin...

Almost 81 per cent of juices and drinks being sold on roadside stalls in Mumbai are unsafe for human consumption, according to the city civic body. The health department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation last month inspected several stalls on roadsides selling lemonade, sugarcane juice and ice pops. "Out of tor 968 samples of such drinks collected from various stalls, 786 (around 81.1 per cent) were found to be unsafe and unfit for consumption," a senior civic official said on Wednesday. The civic body has decided to act tough against vendors selling such unhygienic drinks which may cause water- borne diseases among consumers, he said. "The civic officials have been regularly inspecting roadside stalls and destroying such contaminated drinks. We don't want to take any chance with people's health," he said. The Central Railway in March banned sale of lemon and other syrup-based juices at food stalls under its jurisdiction after a video...

The morning after the deck of a foot overbridge outside CSMT station collapsed, killing six people and leaving 31 injured, the Brihnamumbai Municipal Corporation chief will chair a meeting to decide on the future course of action for the structure. A BMC spokesperson said civic commissioner Ajoy Mehta will meet Road and Bride department officials Friday and then take a call on dismantling the entire FOB. On Friday morning, the BMC kept the busy DN Road blocked as part of the post-collapse safety stipulations and civic staff went about dismantling the entire deck of the FOB. "DN Road (on which the FOB stood) has been blocked as a precautionary measure. BMC commissioner Mehta has called a meeting on this to decide on its re-opening," another civic official said. He added that the FOB was found structurally safe when it was audited in August 2016, soon after a British-era bridge over Savitri River got washed away in monsoon downpour in Mahad in Raigad district. ...