COVID-19: Maha minister Tope pushes for aggressive testing

The Maharashtra government will

push for aggressive testing to detect coronavirus and also increase facilities for institutional quarantine as home isolation was not working, state Health Minister Rajesh Tope said on Friday.

Speaking to PTI, Tope said the spread of the virus in dense slum pockets was a challenge.

"The home quarantine facility was not working. So we have to expand institutional quarantine facilities outside containment zones," he said.

Tope said portable pulse oximeter (which monitors amount of oxygen in body) and chest X-rays will be used for early detection.

"Early detection as well as putting people with comorbidities and senior citizens in containment zones into quarantine is important. Pool testing will also help," he said, adding that aggressive tracing and testing of patients in slum pockets is being taken up.

 

Speaking on the mortality rate (deaths per 100 cases) from the virus, which had now come down to 4.40 per cent, Tope said. "The number of cases is more because of early detection. We also want to increase the span in which cases double," he said.

"At the moment, it is 7 days here while the national doubling rate is 9 days. We have to increase the number of days in which cases double," he said.

Maharashtra has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country.