COVID-19 crisis: Central Health Ministry team to visit Maharashtra, Gujarat & Telangana

Amid criticism about the handling of the COVID-19 situation in Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Telangana, a Central team led by Lav Aggarwal- the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health will visit these states from June 26-29. The team shall interact with the state officials and coordinate with them to strengthen the ongoing efforts for the management of COVID-19. While Maharashtra and Gujarat have seen a rising number of novel coronavirus cases, Telangana's COVID-19 fight has drawn flak for the lack of enough testing. 

Read: Coronavirus Live Updates: India Reports Highest Single Day Spike; Recovery Rate At 57.43%

Testing in Telangana

Telangana recorded 891 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 10,444. The state's death toll surged to 225 with 5 more deaths being reported in the day. 4,069 samples were tested for the novel coronavirus in the state on Wednesday.

One of the reasons behind low testing was the fact that the K Chandrasekhar Rao-led government had barred private labs from conducting COVID-19 testing till June 14. Recently, it fixed the prices for COVID-19 tests and treatment at private hospitals and labs. Also, a decision was taken to increase the COVID-19 testing especially in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation which encompasses Hyderabad, Secunderabad, and the suburban areas where a large number of cases are being reported daily since the lifting of the lockdown. 

Read: Screening Of Households, Door-to-door Surveys, Among Measures To Combat COVID-19 In Andhra

Maharashtra's COVID-19 fight

208 deaths and 3890 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Maharashtra on Wednesday. The total number of positive cases in the state is now 1,42,900, while 6739 fatalities have been reported so far. With 4161 patients being discharged in the day, the number of recovered soared to 73,792. The recovery rate in the state is 51.64%.

A particular concern has been Mumbai that has witnessed 69625 cases and 3962 deaths. While there are indications that the curve is flattening in hotspots such as Dharavi and Worli, there have been a number of issues such as overcharging in private hospitals, alleged misrepresentation of death data, lack of transparency of tests done daily, shortage of beds for critical patients, etc. On June 23, the BMC launched 'Mission Univeral Testing' aimed at ramping up novel coronavirus testing in Mumbai.

Situation in Gujarat

Gujarat's COVID-19 tally rose to 29,001 after 572 novel coronavirus cases were reported on Wednesday. After 25 persons passed away owing to the novel coronavirus in the day, the state's death toll soared to 1736. So far, 21,096 patients have been discharged. As of June 10, Gujarat had the third-highest positivity rate in the country with 8.09 positive cases per 100 tests. As per reports, the state has also lagged behind in contact tracing. 

Read: Thiruvananthapuram Launches Area-specific Random Tests To Contain COVID Spread