Mumbai, Jun 4 (IANS): Letting their hair down scores of PPE-clad doctors, nurses, paramedics and health workers along with patients danced away merrily to mark the first anniversary of the BMC's NESCO Covid-19 Jumbo Field Hospital, officials said here on Friday.

On Thursday, hundreds of patients undergoing treatment were pleasantly surprised to see hordes of the frontline health workers in their blue or white or grey PPE kits suddenly breaking into carefree dance, in the halls, swaying to some popular Bollywood numbers played on the loudspeakers.

Some of the agile medical staffers even climbed on empty beds to shake a leg, others swirled and gyrated in two's, three's or in small groups, and a few of the masked patients also feebly tried to rock and roll alongside their care-givers in the revelry.

An official of BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said that the NESCO Jumbo Field Hospital was commissioned on June 2 last year and with 3,000 beds at one point of time, is considered among the biggest such Covid-19 field treatment facility of its kind in the world.

In the past one year, it has treated and sent home over 21,000 Covid-19 patients giving succor to their near and dear ones, and smiles of satisfaction among the health workers and BMC staffers who are toiling practically 24X7 at the hospital.

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, NESCO - which completes 30 years of operations in 2021 - has been the playground for some of the biggest domestic or global exhibitions, MICE, trade shows, national-international business meets or entertainment that attracted top leaders from India and abroad.

It is sprawled across a 15-acres green campus in Goregaon east adjoining the Western Express Highway, barely 15 minutes from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, and has virtually become Mumbai's mecca for all major events since the past three decades.

Last year, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the state government set up the city's first three mega-jumbo field hospitals at NESCO along with Bandra Kurla Complex and the NSCI grounds.