BMC direct hospitals to appoint nodal officer to report COVID deaths within 48 hours

Amid allegations by BJP that  Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is manipulating COVID-19 death data in Mumbai, civic body on Saturday has sent a circular to all private and government hospitals directing m to appoint a dal officer. BMC, in its circular, has said that  dal officer will be responsible to report deaths in hospitals within 48 hours.It has also said that strict action will be taken against hospitals if y fail to report deaths within 48 hours.

BJP has been accusing Uddhav Thackeray led Maharashtra government and BMC for hiding COVID-19 data. BJP leer Devendra Fnavis on Thursday wrote to Maharashtra CM Uddhav alleging that 1000 COVID-19 deaths in Mumbai h still t been reported in state's overall fatality toll. Former Lok Sabha MP Kirit Somaiya on June 25 wrote a letter to Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sanjay Kumar, & accused BMC of manipulating daily COVID-19 death data. He pointed out that ditional death figures from previous period were shown separately in a "mischievous manner". 

Mumbai COVID-19 tally

While Maharashtra's Coronavirus (COVID-19) daily tally has been averaging 5000 cases recently, its financial capital reported 1297 cases on Friday, with 44 new deaths. Mumbai also saw 593 recoveries taking its tally to 39,744 cases. city's COVID-19 tally, which is second-highest in India, stands at 72,287 cases and 4177 fatalities.

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Sero survey in Mumbai

BMC also reported that it will undertake large-scale sero surveillance in three wards M-west, F-rth and R-rth in partnership with NITI-Aayog, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and or institutions. While an ICMR-heed serosurvey  of 500 samples has alrey been completed in Mumbai, this serosurvey will test 10,000 random samples in n-slum areas. This sero survey which will be used to ascertain level of infection of virus, ar special survey will be conducted for Health care officials in same wards.

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Mumbai's COVID crisis

BMC has increased its containment zones to 756, while over 6005 buildings and chawls have been sealed and being self-mand by society. While slums were initially where most cases were found, BMC claims that most cases were w found in housing societies. Recent BMC report shows Borivali as most affected place with doubling rate at 20 days, while Dharavi is least affected ward with doubling rate at 97 days. Overall, Mumbai's doubling rate at 41 days is higher than national aver of 17.4 days

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