Mumbai: Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Monday sought to understand the Kerala way of fighting the coronavirus pandemic and underlined challenge of ensuring social distancing in congested places like Dharavi, a Mumbai hotspot which has so far recorded over 1,200 cases, his counterpart from the southern state said.
Tope interacted with Kerala Health Minister K K Shailaja who has been widely praised for the southern state's robust response to the pandemic and flattening the COVID-19 curve, reflected in low number of cases and fatalities as compared to other states.
In posts from her official Twitter handle @shailajateacher, she said, Maharashtra State health minister Rajesh Tope shared that the challenge in Maharashtra is the inability to ensure social distancing in places like Dharavi.
"Tope was eager to understand our standard operating protocol, guidelines, treatment and testing methods that Kerala has successfully implemented to fight COVID-19," said the Kerala minister, who is popularly known as Shailaja teacher in her state.
"The Maharashtra health minister lauded Kerala's effort in providing best quarantine system and minimising deaths," Shailaja said.
Tope said it is commendable that Kerala has managed to move forward in plasma treatment, according to her.
The Kerala minister also added in one of her tweets that the Maharashtra government and its health department are doing their best to minimise death and prevent the spread of the disease.
Tope also tweeted that he interacted with his Kerala counterpart.
Sharing details of the interaction along with a couple of photographs, Tope said, I interacted with health minister of Kerala K Shailaja and tried to find out additional measures to be undertaken for curbing the coronavirus outbreak in the state.
Dharavi, a sprawling slum colony in Mumbai, has so far reported more than 1,200 COVID-19 cases and 56 deaths.
