UDHAV THACKERAY & PR!
It’s true that everything is not hunky-dory with all the states, but since many people allege that PR machinery of Maharastra govt is working extra hard to show the shiny picture, here are some things which are maybe interesting to know.
The first case in the state was detected on March 9th, he returned from Dubai. In the next couple of days, six more people tested positive. All of them were part of the tour group that came back from Dubai.
They weren’t screened at Mumbai airport, as state govt hadn’t started universal screenings and UAE wasn’t part of the focus countries. They started universal screening only on March 17.
Remember those initial cases? Well, they had returned from Dubai on March 1st. Currently, Maharastra leads in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. People say it’s because they are testing more. Now, the govt can’t get brownie points on that because they have the same criterion of testing as most other states.
These criteria include people who returned from foreign countries or have come in contact with COVID +ve case or have a recommendation of the test from a doctor. So, the state is testing more, because more people in the state qualify these requirements.
In fact, doctors blame the govt.’s lacklustre attitude and delay for this high number of cases. For example, 40% of ALL COVID CASES in the state are due to people who have returned from Dubai. This could have been prevented, had they been timely screened and quarantined at the airport.
In fact, Govt waited for 8 days to start screening people from Dubai after the first case came with a history of travel to Dubai.
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