Thane: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has said that in view of the WHO’s warning that COVID-19 cases will be on the rise in the coming days, the state government has decided to provide 80 per cent oxygen cylinders to hospitals and 20 per cent to industries.
He also said that although there were only a handful of testing laboratories in the state when the outbreak began, their number has now grown to 550.
Thackeray said this while inaugurating a testing laboratory and six COVID Care centres in Navi Mumbai on Thursday.
“Considering the warning given by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that the number of COVID-19 cases will rise in the coming days, the state government has decided to provide 80 per cent oxygen cylinders to hospitals and the remaining 20 per cent to industries,” an official release quoted him as saying.
“This distribution of oxygen cylinders will be done through a centralised system,” he said.
The state government is creating a large number of health facilities to tackle the pandemic, he said.
“But despite the excellent quality of medical facilities, people are skeptical about them. Therefore, the agencies should make efforts to increase the credibility in the minds of people towards the facilities,” Thackeray said.
“Earlier, there were only a handful of laboratories.
Today we have 550 labs…Not only in Mumbai, but the government is taking steps to set up adequate health facilities in the entire state,” he added.
But there is a need to create confidence in the mind of people about these facilities, the chief minister said, adding that prominent hospitals should be asked to adopt the smaller ones for treatment of patients.
Thackeray said the lockdown was carried out to break the virus chain.
“Ganeshotsav was celebrated on a low-key note and as per the guidelines of the government. But in the same period, we found several family members getting infected,” he said.
He said that the use of face mask, maintaining social distancing, washing hands are some of the steps one should follow.