Maha CM asks for district-level coronavirus task forces

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday asked district collectors to appoint a task force of expert doctors to curb COVID-19-related deaths, and warned against complacency in tracing patients and their contacts.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday asked district collectors to appoint a task force of expert doctors to curb COVID-19-related deaths, and warned against complacency in tracing patients and their contacts. Thackeray held a video conference with collectors, municipal commissioners and divisional commissioners to review the pandemic situation, an official statement said.

While the spread of coronavirus has been contained, increase in the mortality rate was not a good sign, he said. "After the easing of lockdown restrictions, there is an increase in the number of patients in some districts.

Tracing patients and their contacts expeditiously is very important and the only solution. There should be no complacency," he said. The doubling rate of coronavirus cases -- the number of days during which number of patients doubles -- is now 23.1 days from 21.3 days, the recovery rate is 50.4 percentwhile mortality rate has gone up to 4.8 per cent from 3.7 per cent, he noted.

Setting up a task force for Mumbai yielded results, the chief minister said. Medical experts in district task forces should be in constant touch with the doctors' panel in Mumbai to discuss medicines and treatment for coronavirus patients, he added.

Test reports should be made available at the earliest but in some places reports come after as long as 72 hours, Thackeray pointed out. There were also complaints that senior doctors are not treating COVID-19 patients citing their own ailments while junior doctors are handling the cases, he said.

"In such cases, the senior doctors should guide their juniors about the line of treatment through (communication) technology," the chief minister said. Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally increased to 1,20,504 on Thursday while the death toll stood at 5,751.