Health Ministry express concern over COVID-19 situation in Maharastra and Gujarat

Expressing concern over the rising cases of coronavirus in Maharashtra and Gujarat Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that the Ministry's aim is to ensure no new cases come from the most affected states and will provide all required support to fight the pandemic.

New Delhi:Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday has expressed serious concern over the COVID-19 situation in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The Minister who interacted with the officials of both the state governments over video conferencing has said that he will talk to the Chief Minister of both the states soon.

"As many as 34 districts in Maharashtra have been affected by COVID- 19. Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Nasik, Aurangabad, Nagpur and Silapur are the worst affected," said Dr Vardhan.

It may be mentioned here that Government has identified 14 red zones, 16 orange zones and 6 green zones out of the total 36 districts in Maharashtra.

Mumbai and Mumbai suburban also come under red zones in the state.

Dr Vardhan said that Health Ministry's aim was to ensure that no new case come up in Maharashtra. "We will provide all help to the State Government," said Dr Vardhan.

Anticipating the worrisome situation in Shiv Sena-NCP ruled Maharashtra, the central government has already sent two inter ministerial central team and a team of health officials to assist the state government and district administrations in their fight against COVID-19.

There are 1026 containment zones in Maharashtra at present.

Maharashtra registered 15,525 COVID-19 cases till Wednesday afternoon including 617 deaths.

Significantly, 2819 patients have also been cured in the state.

Dr Vardhan also interacted with the officials of Gujarat government following the fact that Gujarat is also another state which is badly affected by COVID-19 pandemic.

Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Chaubey, Health Secretary Preeti Sudan among others were present in the meeting.

As many as 368 people have so far died due to the disease in Gujarat. On Tuesday, Gujarat registered the highest single day spike of 441 Covid19 cases in the state.

Ahmadabad, Vadodara and Surat have registered highest number of cases in the state.

Officials in the Health Ministry said that Dr Vardhan has assured Gujarat Government of providing all required support in its fight against COVID-19.

As per Health Ministry statistics, with 15525 COVID-19 positive cases, Maharashtra and with 6245 cases, Gujarat are leading the list of states with maximum number of COVID cases.