BBMP may temporarily close Covid Care Centres with low or no occupancy

The BBMP is considering temporarily shutting the Covid Care Centres (CCCs) with the plummeting fresh Covid numbers in the city.

“We are considering temporarily shutting CCCs with fewer patient counts,” BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta confirmed, adding that the civic body will maintain the infrastructure and ramp it up if the need arises.

One of the CCCs due to be shut down is the 200-bedded facility at the Koramangala Indoor Stadium, which sources said received barely any patient. The CCC at the Government Ayurvedic Medical College in Gandhinagar has been closed since the BBMP is undertaking work concerning oxygen lining.

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While some facilities had either one or absolutely no patients, DH carried a report on May 9 on the low occupancy issue.

“We are in the process of identifying CCCs receiving fewer patients. Shutting them temporarily will help divert the resources elsewhere for better utilisation and management of the Covid pandemic,” said Joint Commissioner (SWM) Sarfaraz Khan, also the officer in charge of the CCCs. The falling caseload has also reduced the occupancy at the CCCs, Khan added.

He said CCCs with no occupancy will also be shut down along with those with fewer numbers since the patients can be transferred to nearby facilities.

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The BBMP had set up nearly 49 CCCs and triage centres for patients who do not have facilities for home isolation. But occupancy at these centres remained low ever since their launch. The occupancy rate did not improve despite BBMP making admission to CCCs mandatory for patients without home isolation facilities.

Data revealed that occupancy at the centres was at 25-30% even as the second wave peaked.