Maha to conduct 75,000 rapid COVID-19 tests soon: Rajesh Tope

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 21 (ANI): The Maharashtra government has decided to conduct 75,000 rapid tests for COVID-19, as the Centre gave the conditional permission to the state for the same.
"Maharashtra government will do 75 thousand rapid tests for coronavirus soon as the Centre has given us conditional permission for rapid tests," said State Health Minister Rajesh Tope.
He informed that the government has decided to "give hydroxychloroquine as a precautionary measure" to COVID-19 patients in Dharavi, Mumbai. It will be taken care that the HCQ is not given to people with cardiac arrest history and to those who are above 60 years of age or below 15.
The state government is also planning to establish oxygen stations at all hospitals designated to treat COVID-19 patients so that there is no dearth of oxygen supply for the patients.
He stated that Maharashtra has the highest number of COVID-19 cases as it had conducted the highest number of corona tests. "We are following all guidelines issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and doing door to door surveys. 6,359 teams are involved in this task all over Maharashtra. We are also focusing on some smaller tests like X-Rays, SPO2 pulse monitor, among others," the State Health Minister said.
Speaking about the COVID-19 zones, he said: "Districts having more than 15 patients comes under the red zone, and the districts which have not recorded any new patients for last 14 days come under the orange zone while the districts which have not recorded any new patient in last 28 days are green zones."
With 466 new COVID-19 cases reported, the total number of positive coronavirus cases has risen to 4,666, said State Public Health Department on Monday.

With nine new deaths in the state, the death toll rose to 232. (ANI)