[COVID-19] Situation under control, no need to panic: BMC assures Bombay High Court

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has assured the Bombay High Court that the COVID situation in Mumbai and its adjoining regions is under control and there is no reason for panic ..A note stating the same was filed before the Court on Wednesday in the pending plea of 2020 concerning improper management of COVID-19 medical treatment in Maharashtra.Senior Advocate Anil Sakhare appearing for the BMC, informed the High Court that “the situation is under control of BMC and there is no reason to panic”.Sakhare told the Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik that there has been a “gradual decline in the COVID-19 positive cases in the city during the third wave of the pandemic”.He pointed out that as on January 18, the number of positive cases have come down to 7,000..Referring to the note, Sakhare pointed out that as per the available data, till January 15, 2022, there were 84,352 active COVID cases in Mumbai.Out of these cases, only 7 per cent patients were required to be admitted in hospital, only 3 per cent required oxygen support and less than 1 per cent required ventilator support.The note further detailed out the active cases, oxygen supply, medicine stock and number of beds available, to show their preparedness to tackle the pandemic situation.He apprised the Bench that the number of COVID cases during the peak of third wave (which was between January 6 to 9 this year) was 20,000. But post January 10, the cases dropped to 10,000 and for the last three days, the cases were down to 7000..Advocate Atharva Dandekar appearing for the petitioner, Sneha Marjadi, acknowledged that the BMC had “risen to the occasion” and was doing a fine job managing the COVID cases in the city.However, he requested the Bench to ask for a similar affidavit from the State on the details of positive cases and resources available in the entire State of Maharashtra.The Bench agreed with Dandekar’s submissions and directed the State government to submit an affidavit by January 25, 2022.The matter will be heard again on January 27, 2022.