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

Amid allegations by the BJP that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is manipulating the COVID-19 death data in Mumbai, the civic body on Saturday has sent a circular to all private and government hospitals directing them to appoint a nodal officer. The BMC, in its circular, has said that the nodal 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 they fail to report deaths within 48 hours.

The BJP has been accusing Uddhav Thackeray led Maharashtra government and the BMC for hiding the COVID-19 data. BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday wrote to Maharashtra CM Uddhav alleging that 1000 COVID-19 deaths in Mumbai had still not been reported in the state's overall fatality toll. Former Lok Sabha MP Kirit Somaiya on June 25 wrote a letter to Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sanjay Kumar, & accused the BMC of manipulating the daily COVID-19 death data. He pointed out that the additional death figures from the 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. The city's COVID-19 tally, which is the second-highest in India, stands at 72,287 cases and 4177 fatalities.

READ | Mumbai sees 1297 new COVID-19 cases; BMC to conduct serosurvey of 10,000 samples

Sero survey in Mumbai

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

READ | Coronavirus Live Updates

Mumbai's COVID crisis

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

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