'Maha COVID-19 doubling rate now 14 days, death rate falls'

The number of COVID-19 patients in Maharashtra are now doubling over a period of 14 days unlike every three days earlier and the death rate has been brought down to 3.25 per cent from 7.6 per cent in April, Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta said on Tuesday. "Success has been achieved in increasing the period over which the number of COVID-19 patients doubled in the state to 14 days from earlier 3 days," Mehta told reporters during a press conference held online.

On Tuesday, the death toll due to COVID-19 in the state rose to 1,792 while the tally of coronavirus cases reached 54,758. He was accompanied by principal secretary of health department Pradeep Vyas and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner IS Chahal during the briefing.

Mehta said that 75,000 beds have been kept ready in Mumbai, which has emerged as the hotspot of the disease, and "Chase The Virus" mission is being implemented for contact tracing in the country's financial capital. The number of tests in Maharashtra is going up, Mehta said, and added 27 new laboratories will be operational in the state.

At present, 72 laboratories are operational in Maharashtra. He said that there are 16,000 surveillance squads in the state and 66 lakh people have been surveyed till now.

He also claimed that the government laid stress on contact tracing to break the chain of coronavirus transmission. Meanwhile, Vyas said 2.70 lakh isolation beds are available for patients.

He said that 20 per cent of the patients in the state need oxygen and 10 per cent need the intensive care units. "There are three thousand ventilators available in the state and 8,400 beds in the ICU. 95 per cent of the patients in the state are in municipal corporation areas and of these, 70 per cent are from MMR," he added.

Chahal said that the BMC is taking steps to bring down the death rate due to the COVID-19 in the city to 3 per cent from 3.2 per cent. He said under "Chase The Virus" initiative, 15 persons who come in close contact of a person who has tested positive will be strictly put in institutional quarantine.

Chahal said a dashboard is being prepared where the availability of beds in Mumbai will be uploaded after every half an hour. 

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)