Brihanmumbai Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal was our guest at ThePrint’s latest Off The Cuff. In a conversation with Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta, Chahal spoke about the various systems that the Mumbai civic body put in place to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
Chahal discussed how he abolished the central control room in the thick of the pandemic and set up 24 ward-level war rooms, adopted a ‘Chase the Virus’ and ‘Chase the Patient’ policy and developed dashboards for hospital beds and crematoria.
He said Mumbai’s private healthcare sector has wholeheartedly supported the civic body, surrendering 80 per cent of their beds even at a collective loss of Rs 700 crore.
Chahal also discussed Mumbai’s preparedness for the third phase of the Covid vaccination drive and plans for developing hospital infrastructure in the event of a third wave.