Maharashtra to deploy 5600 medical students in fight against COVID; ramp up antigen tests

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said on Thursday the government will be deploying 5,600 medical students in the state's fight against the Coronavirus outbreak that has infected 1,42,900 people so far and claimed 6,739 lives in the state.

"To counter the shortage of doctors in the state, the Maharashtra Government will now be deploying 5600 medical students in the COVID war across the state. These will be medical students pursuing masters and graduation in medicine," Tope told reporters.

Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray had earlier wrote to PM Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to direct the Medical Council of India to postpone the medical final year postgraduate exams till December 2020. Mentioning that the final year MD/MS exam is conducted in the month of May or June by the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik, he stated that it had been postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thackeray revealed that the final year resident doctors required to take these exams are presently working on the frontline in all municipal and government hospitals assisting the clinical management of COVID-19 patients. 

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Antigen testing to be ramped up

He also said that the government would conduct antigen tests, which would provide results of the COVID-19 tests within an hour, and to do that one lakhs testing kits have been ordered. Tope said priority would be given to conducting this test on the frontline COVID-19 workers, such as essential services staff, health workers, police, and others.

The Maharashtra government has decided to undertake ICMR-approved rapid antibody tests, whose kits were being supplied by a South Korean company. A time-consuming exercise, the traditional test based on RT-PCR technology takes up to 24 hours to give results.

The Minister said the antigen test will help in the early detection of Coronavirus cases. "The tests will cost ₹450 each and it would be used for front-line personnel. But its use is not restricted and anyone can undergo the test. We will procure one lakh such kits," he said.

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Rajesh Tope further said that 80% of the current active COVID-19 cases are asymptomatic and asserted that amid rising cases, the government and people have to remain cautious. He said that the best medication is being given to patients and testing has been ramped up.

"We are taking all the precautionary measures to decrease the death rate which is now 4.5%. We have deployed task force, providing best medication and door to door testing is happening. Everyday we do 20,000 tests in the state. Till now more than 8 lakh samples have been tested in Maharashtra," Tope said.

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