The Maharashtra government will provide free testing, treatment and meals to Covid-19 patients in civic and state government-run hospitals in the state.
 
With the number of Covid-19 cases increasing by the day in Maharashtra and with the cities of Mumbai and Pune being declared at red zones the GoM has started free testing and treatment of Covid-19 patients at all medical and dental colleges under the Directorate of Medical Education and Research, Ministry of Medical Education, GoM .
 
Announcing the measures being taken by the government to tackle coronavirus, state medical education minister Amit Deshmukh said that the number of testing labs in the state will soon increase to 60.
 
“Earlier there were only four labs for testing of Covid-19 across the state. Now there are 40 labs including private and government labs and soon the number of labs will increase to 60. Daily 7,000 tests are done in these 40 labs. Maharashtra has already done more than one lakh tests, which is the maximum in the country till date,” said Deshmukh.
 
Seeking the centre’s help to provide test kits and PPE he said that since the number of tests is increasing there is a corresponding need for more test kits which should be provided by the central government. “Though the state has a sufficient number of PPE kits and masks, to meet the growing demand the state government has already sought additional PPE kits and masks from the central government.”
 
Refuting the opposition’s allegations that the state government is suppressing patients’ numbers and terming them baseless, Deshmukh added that government hospitals in several districts including Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Nashik, Amravati, Yavatmal and Solapur are equipped with all the necessary machinery to fight against Covid-19.
 
Since there is no vaccine or medicine available for Covid-19 virus, the medical education minister appealed to the people to be extra cautious. He appealed to people to contact a doctor without any social fear in case they felt any of the virus symptoms. Deshmukh also said that the government has received several complaints especially from Mumbai and Pune regarding closure of dialysis in private clinics.
 
“Since many hospitals were taken over by the state for Covid-19 treatment it led to the low availability of dialysis services. The chief minister has already appealed to all private hospitals to continue dialysis on humanitarian grounds. The chief minister, deputy chief minister, revenue minister and the guardian ministers keeping an eye on ground situations are working 24 hours a day in coordination to fight the pandemic,” he said.
 
Meanwhile, as on April 27 Maharashtra has recorded the highest mortality with 337 deaths, followed by Gujarat at 137. Additionally, Maharashtra continues to witness the highest number of active cases in the country with 8,072 infections, followed by Gujarat at 3,295 and Delhi at 2,915. As of April 27, the rate of testing in India rests at 582.13 per million with a total of 7,87,575 tests recorded.