Set up Covid task force in each district: Uddhav

The CM was reviewing the Covid-19 situation through video conference with divisional commissioners, district collectors and municipal commissioners. (File photo)

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday asked each district administration to set up a task force of expert doctors, on the lines of the task force in Mumbai, to tackle rising cases of Covid-19.

Maintaining that there should not be any negligence in tracing high-risk contacts of patients, Uddhav said: “The task force set up in Mumbai has helped a lot. Now, there is a need to set up task forces in each district or division due to the rise in the number of cases. The task force should have senior and experienced doctors in it and they should keep in touch with the doctors in Mumbai.”

The CM was reviewing the Covid-19 situation through video conference with divisional commissioners, district collectors and municipal commissioners.

“Though we have lowered the doubling rate of the cases, the increase in the mortality rate is not good. The number of cases are increasing in some districts after we granted some relaxations from the lockdown. The only way to deal with this is finding the patient and tracing the high-risk contacts. There should not be any negligence,” said Uddhav.

He further said that senior doctors, who are not treating Covid-19 patients in some districts, should guide junior doctors. “If senior doctors don’t want to treat the patients directly, they should be present in the hospital and guide junior doctors on treatment. They can also guide through computers and smartphones by keeping themselves safe.”

Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta asked the districts to properly maintain records of patients. “Wherever less than 10 contacts of a patient had been traced, the number of cases had gone up. If a patient is found in a flat in a building, a close watch should be kept on the residents of the building,” he added.