'Mumbai can see normalcy of life by August'

With Mumbai witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases over the last three months, there may be respite soon as a fall in positive cases and strong recovery numbers has been seen in past few days.

According to experts if this trend continues, Mumbai may see a flattening of the curve by mid-July and normalcy of life by the start of August if precautionary measures remain in place.

CEO of Wockhardt Hospital Mumbai, Dr Parag Rindhani, who is a microbiologist, said: "In the past three months, we have seen several cases of COVID-19 and now, fortunately, we are seeing a decrease in numbers. With this trend, we can expect a flattening of the curve by mid-July, which BMC commissioner has also said, and the normalcy of life can be expected by the beginning of August."

"But it is conditional as people would have to behave responsibly for that, else we cannot deny the possibility of a second wave," he added.

Dr Rindhani further spoke about the monsoon-related diseases and said soon it will become difficult to segregate COVID and non-COVID patients.

"In the coming days, we are going to face another challenge for COVID-19 treatment as we will have patients suffering from fever due to malaria, dengue or other monsoon related diseases. And then, it will be more difficult to segregate COVID and non-COVID patients," the expert said.

Wockhardt was one of the hospitals which itself was affected by COVID badly as its 60 staff nurses and doctors were infected by coronavirus while treating the patients but now all have recovered and are giving their service to the other patients.

CEO Dr Rindhani himself got infected with COVID-19 and admitted to the ICU for over a week.

Now, Wockhardt is working as one of the biggest private COVID facilities in Mumbai.

With 1,42,900 confirmed cases of COVID-19 so far, Maharashtra remains the worst-affected state in the country, as per the Union health and welfare ministry on Thursday.