“We have no hesitation in saying that Maharashtra was one of the pioneers in tackling Covid,” said the Bombay High Court on Monday, showering praises on the Uddhav Thackeray-led government.
Maharashtra is one of the most-affected States when it comes to Covid cases and deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic.
However, State Ministers and experts attribute the success of the State government in tackling Covid to strict execution of lockdown, insistence on testing to detect patients, and speedy steps to building health infrastructure.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik made the comment while disposing of several Public Interest Litigations (PILs). These PILs were filed last year seeking relief from the HC on the State government’s efforts, disbursement of resources related to the pandemic.
The HC disposed of the PILs saying that most of the reliefs have been granted and that the State government had acted upon all orders passed by it.
Maharashtra’s success
From 214 hospitals to treat Covid patients in March 2020 to 6,488 hospitals in October 2021, the State government increased infrastructure and added 1,26,404 oxygen beds during the pandemic, according to State government data.
Before the pandemic hit, the State had 2,829 oxygen beds. The first Covid case in Maharashtra was reported on March 9, 2020. During this time, Maharashtra had 11,380 isolation beds and 3,209 ICU.
Today, the State has 4,40,550 isolation beds and 37,449 ICU beds.
The State executed the rapid programme to increase oxygen beds and today there is an availability of 1,29,233 oxygen beds. From 1,042 ventilators in 2020, Maharashtra has 14,580 ventilators today. The number of labs has gone up from three to 624.
The State government data report on Covid infrastructure shows that Maharashtra had 548 Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) oxygen plants sanctioned by the Centre for installation in public health facilities. Of these, 110 are ready.
Testing, tracing
Even as the number of patients was rising in April and May this year, the State government continued to insist on more testing.
State Health Minister Rajesh Tope has earlier said that the government did not hide the patient numbers and ensured that every patient is detected and treated.