Tope, Kerala health minister discuss COVID-19 response

Mumbai, May 18 () Maharashtra Health MinisterRajesh Tope on Monday sought to understand the Kerala way offighting the coronavirus pandemic and underlined challenge ofensuring social distancing in congested places like Dharavi, aMumbai hotspot which has so far recorded over 1,200 cases, hiscounterpart from the southern state said.

Tope interacted with Kerala Health Minister K KShailaja who has been widely praised for the southern state'srobust response to the pandemic and flattening the COVID-19curve, reflected in low number of cases and fatalities ascompared to other states.

In posts from her official Twitter handle@shailajateacher, she said, Maharashtra State health ministerRajesh Tope shared that the challenge in Maharashtra is theinability to ensure social distancing in places like Dharavi.

"Tope was eager to understand our standard operatingprotocol, guidelines, treatment and testing methods thatKerala has successfully implemented to fight COVID-19," saidthe Kerala minister, who is popularly known as Shailajateacher in her state.

"The Maharashtra health minister lauded Kerala'seffort in providing best quarantine system and minimisingdeaths," Shailaja said.

Tope said it is commendable that Kerala has managed tomove forward in plasma treatment, according to her.

The Kerala minister also added in one of her tweetsthat the Maharashtra government and its health department aredoing their best to minimise death and prevent the spread ofthe disease.

Tope also tweeted that he interacted with his Keralacounterpart.

Sharing details of the interaction along with a coupleof photographs, Tope said, I interacted with health ministerof Kerala K Shailaja and tried to find out additional measuresto be undertaken for curbing the coronavirus outbreak in thestate.

Dharavi, a sprawling slum colony in Mumbai, has so farreported more than 1,200 COVID-19 cases and 56 deaths. NDRSY RSY