Stepping up its efforts to curb the growing number of daily COVID-19 cases in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has asked private hospitals to increase the number of beds to what it was in July last year within the next 48 hours and follow the earlier rule of charging patients based on government rates for 80 per cent of the beds and hospital rates for the remaining 20 per cent. The move comes post a meeting of civic chief Iqbal Singh Chahal with the authorities of private hospitals on Friday. The civic body will also increase the daily time for vaccinations from eight to 12 hours.

A citizen gets vaccinated at Nair Hospital on Thursday. File pic