As on April 10, as per the data shared by the state health ministry, the total number of cases in Maharashtra shot up to 1,574 In addition to this, the report also records the total number of people testing positive in Mumbai to be 1008.
It is already a big challenge for the BMC to manage the number of case with the virus making its way to slums and other densely populated areas. Now, there is another challenge being added with health care professionals testing positive for the coronavirus. As many as 8 hospitals in the city are sealed after the nurses or the doctors or in some cases both testing positive. This has raised serious questions about the safety standards that are being deployed and also on the government's efforts to combat the spread of the virus in the financial capital of the country.
Talking about the same, Rajesh Top, the state health minister said that BMC has ordered for 1 lakh rapid testing kits. As soon as the testing kits arrive BMC will start testing the Frontline workers including doctors, nurses. Rajesh Tope made this statement while talking to Mirror Now..
These kits will also be deployed to tests policemen that are patroling 24X7 to make sure that people don't flout the lockdown rules. As per earlier reports, these kits were to reach the state by Wednesday but looks like there has been a delay in procuring the same.
Earlier in the week, in an exclusive conversation with Mumbai Live, Maharashtra Public Health Minister Rajesh Tope informed that the state government was looking at adding schools to the list of quarantine facilities. Along with this, there should be a better testing facility in order to get faster results.
He added. “The swab test results should come within 24 hours but the report doesn’t come even after 3 days. This is why we need to improve the testing facility”.