Mumbai, May 16 (PTI) The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation handled nearly 10.75 lakh COVID-19 positive test reports during the pandemic that began in early 2020 and was the only city in the world which did not directly give such reports to patients, civic chief Iqbal Singh Chahal said on Monday.

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Speaking at the launch event of the book 'Iqbal Singh Chahal: A Covid Warrior' authored by Minhaz Merchant, the BMC commissioner said not a single city in the world copied this process as it involved a lot of risk.

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"This is the only one example in the whole world where the patients did not get a positive test (COVID-19) report. The BMC handled around 10.75 lakh (COVID-19) tests reports, and a proud feat was that not a single report went missing," Chahal said.

A missing report could have led to a person possible dying without treatment, which may have led to his or her kin suing the BMC, he added.

"We worked with 100 per cent accuracy. The BMC implemented 29 sub-models to control the pandemic. It is now being acclaimed as the Mumbai model. This Mumbai model has been explained in the book, which will be readily available for people in case a pandemic hits again," Chahal told the gathering.

Erection of jumbo hospitals, schemes like 'my family, my responsibility', 'chase the virus', initiatives like online dashboard, Dharavi pattern, oxygen management model, arranging 1000 ambulances etc were some of the sub-models deployed, Chahal informed.

He said 10 lakh persons are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in Mumbai, the feat being achieved two months ago, while Delhi was still to administer the second dose to many eligible beneficiaries.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who launched the book, said he did not have the experience of being CM or of handling COVID-19, but the pandemic was controlled.

If the CM would have got petrified of the pandemic, it would have affected the entire state, Thackeray added.

The book has been written with the aim of documenting what went into taming the pandemic, and it will be useful long after, the CM asserted.

He took a swipe at the Union government over distress caused to labourers amid the lockdown, and said efforts to get trains to send them home were in vain and a national lockdown was announced.

The book needs to be sent to some people's homes, he further said.

There was also a phase during the pandemic when shrines were shut and only ambulance sirens were audible, while people struggled to get medicines with "tough to pronounce" names like Remdesevir and Tocilozumab, the CM said.

Speaking at the event, state minister Aaditya Thackeray, who is also guardian minister of Mumbai suburban district, said the battle against COVID-19 was not over yet and went on to hint that the use of masks could "probably" be made mandatory.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)