The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday assured the Bombay High Court that the current COVID-19 situation in the city was “under control and there was no reason for citizens to panic.”
Senior counsel Anil Sakhre representing the civic body informed a division Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice M.S. Karnik that Mumbai was witnessing a decline in the number of COVID-19 cases in the third wave of the pandemic.
He said, “As per the data available till January 15, there were 84,352 active cases in the city, of which only 7% patients needed hospitalisation, 3% needed oxygen support and 0.7% required ventilator support.”
He also submitted a detailed note on active cases, oxygen supply, stock of medicines, hospital beds available and said, “We have adequate oxygen supply; hospital beds are available. There is no reason for any panic.”
The bench then asked if the civic body was saying that the situation in Mumbai was totally under control. To which Mr. Sakhare said, “Yes, everything is in control now. Cases are coming down. The number of positive cases had peaked to 20,000 around January 6 to January 9. But on January 15, the cases had come down to 10,000 and for the last three days, they have come down to 7,000.”
The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) on issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the management and preparedness of the State and BMC on the same.
Advocate Atharva Dandekar appearing for petitioner told the Court that while BMC was doing a fine job at managing the infections in the city, the State government must also submit all the details of positive and active cases, resources available, beds occupied etc. in the entire State.
The matter is adjourned to January 25.
