Need more testing labs, accelerated preventive measures

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday stressed the need to increase the number of coronavirus testing laboratories in the country during a video-conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Thackeray also said that India needs to accelerate precautionary measures to prevent coronavirus epidemic from entering the third stage when the number of patients increases exponentially.

The need of the hour is to increase the number of testing centers and laboratories, Thackeray said. Maharashtra so far has 52 coronavirus positive cases, while one Covid-19 patient died in Mumbai this week.

India is currently at stage 2 of coronavirus transmission and the pace of measures to tackle the virus should be expedited to prevent stage 3 of transmission, he said. Thackeray was the first to speak in the video conference of the PM with Chief Ministers of all states.

The former BJP ally also told Modi that people have responded to the prime minister's appeal for `Janata curfew' positively. "The Maharashtra government has taken adequate steps to prevent the spread of the virus. Though the number of patients is small at present, considering the spread of the disease, we should not be under any illusion (that it will not grow much)," the chief minister said.

While international flights will not land in the country from March 22, till then about 25,000 travelers will have returned to the country, and they need to be quarantined or treated, he said. "Facilities need to be upgraded for this. Passengers who land in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur will try to get away in any vehicle they get from the airport (to avoid quarantine). It will be a challenge to stop them," Thackeray said.

As more quarantine facilities and hospitals will be required in coming days, Army hospitals can be utilized, he said, requesting the prime minister to look into this.