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Updated July 20th, 2021 at 20:50 IST

BMC Commissioner conferred ‘Mumbai Ratna Award’ for formulating city's COVID fight model

BMC commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal has been accorded with the ‘Mumbai Ratna Award’ by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Monday for the city's COVID fight model

BMC Commissioner
Pic : BMC Twitter | Image:self
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Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal has been accorded with the ‘Mumbai Ratna Award’ by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Monday for leading the fight against COVID. The 1989 batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre was bestowed with the honour in recognition of his efforts in the city’s fight against COVID.

BMC Commissioner Chahal has been credited for being the 'architect' of the internationally acclaimed ‘Mumbai COVID model’ that effectively controlled the spread of the pandemic in the city.

Commissioner dedicates merit to 'team BMC'

Mr Chahal was delighted with the honours that he received as he took to the social media while dedicating the merits to 'Team BMC'. 

'Mumbai model' to tackle COVID 

Earlier in May, Commissioner Chahal was lauded for the "successful" Mumbai model of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the civic body for its "effective job,". The Bombay High Court had then insisted that all the corporations in Maharashtra must replicate the Mumbai model especially in Pune and Nashik, where COVID cases continued to take a toll.

What is the 'Mumbai Model'?

The 'Mumbai model' to fight COVID gained prominence after the outbreak of the second wave when many parts of the country faced an acute shortage of oxygen. One of the major features of BMC's response was to decentralise the disaster control room into 24 ward-level war rooms. All of them have their dedicated helpline number which is operated 24x7. 

Additionally, it adopted the triage system whereby the war rooms determined the severity of a patient’s condition, their likelihood of recovery without treatment, and thus determining the priority of who to afford care to. Another key move was the BMC augmented the number of hospital beds, including ICU and oxygenated beds by 1.5 times more than what the city had during the first wave. For instance, it had set up 6 temporary jumbo COVID hospitals having a capacity of 8915 beds in a very short period of time.

Even before the oxygen crisis, the BMC had installed 15 Liquid Medical Oxygen tanks with a capacity of 13 kilolitres each and 11 smaller LMO tanks with a capacity of up to six kilolitres each in Mumbai's 6 civic-run hospitals and the jumbo COVID-19 centres. in May-June 2020. Furthermore, 6 zonal teams consisting of senior medical officers, administration staff, and oxygen suppliers were formed to oversee O2 management at 4 wards each. Another successful strategy was the effective use of data to form micro-containment zones.

Maharashtra's COVID situation

Meanwhile, according to the state health department’s bulletin, Maharashtra’s caseload of coronavirus disease (COVID) climbed to 62,20,207 on Monday after 6,017 fresh infections were reported in the last 24 hours. As many as 66 people succumbed to the viral disease, while 13,051 patients recovered in the same period, taking the death toll and total recoveries to 1,27,097 and 59,93,401, respectively. 

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Published July 20th, 2021 at 20:50 IST

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