While the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) report shows a significant number of beds are available for COVID-19 patients in the city, private hospitals are running at full capacity and have a waiting period for admissions. The private institutions are also facing manpower shortage, and are having to divert their non-COVID force for the care of Coronavirus patients. 

The civic body has given the private hospitals a deadline of January 10 to restore their bed capacity to what it was on May 5, 2021, during the second wave. They have also been told to discharge asymptomatic patients within three days. More than 15,000 beds are available at the nine jumbo COVID care centres and the BMC’s SevenHills Hospital, but most patients are reluctant to be admitted to civic-run facilities, said civic officials. As more than 90 per cent of the positive cases are from non-slum areas, patients’ first preference is a private hospital, said health officials.