Maharashtra Demands More Ventilators Amid Covid -19 Pandemic

Maharashtra Demands 2000 Ventilator From Center 

As of April 22, Maharashtra has the maximum number of COVID-19 patients and highest mortality rate in the country.

With the rising number of Covid-19 patients across the state, the Maharashtra government has asked the Center to step in and provide 2000 more ventilators. The concern being doubling of cases rapidly and virus entering new territories across the state. The state medical authorities are actively preparing to contain the crisis.

Lockdown Extension  

The first phase of the lockdown helped in no community transformation of the virus. Within Maharashtra, 90% of the cases have been registered from Mumbai, Pune and Metropolitan region around Mumbai, while the rest of the state accounts for 10% cases.

However, due to the exponential spike in new cases, the Maharashtra government has extended the lockdown till April 30.

How to contain pandemic?

The state government has now devised a new strategy to combat the pandemic. The measures include fever clinics to monitor potential carriers of the virus, a substantial increase in testing, door to door survey, drone surveillance in crowded areas, stringent enforcement of social distancing norms and containment zones to stop the transmission of the virus.

Health Care 

The Maharashtra state health department has designated 120 hospitals with approximately 4000 ICU beds for critical COVID -19 patients. Vacant residential complexes, schools, guest houses, hotels, etc. are converted into health care centres for providing medical aid to quarantine patients with mild symptoms of COVID -19.

Objective 

The key goal is to stop the transmission by curing the patients and slow down the disease spread, thereby flattening the curve.

The government has estimated the requirements and is stockpiling the medical essentials like medicines, oxygen cylinders and hence the demand to supply 2000 ventilators from central government.