Over the past three months, Maharashtra has reeled under the pandemic and Mumbai carried much of the load of COVID-19 patients. Apart from complaints regarding access to proper healthcare, many people have faced losses in their businesses and some have even lost their jobs. Till date, the state has witnessed over 1.1 lakh cases and over 5,600 COVID-19-related deaths. Despite setting up healthcare facilities for COVID patients, the civic body and the state government have also been criticised for a number of issues.

Nearly two weeks after the lockdown restrictions were lifted, mid-day asked Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta about the plan for the city. Mehta highlighted certain short-term and long-term solutions to deal with the pandemic as well as recover from the economic setback Mumbai has suffered. These include setting up a tracking system for all COVID patients for better data management and holding auditors responsible for proper monitoring beds at private hospitals. There are also plans to re-assess health infrastructure and protocol for management of infectious diseases.