PALGHAR: Delay in testing and admission of critical patients has led to an increase in the COVID-19 death toll in Maharashtra's Palghar district, collector Dr Kailash Shinde said on Wednesday.
In an official statement, the collector said that 60 per cent of COVID-19 deaths were of patients who succumbed to the infection within 72 hours of being admitted to hospitals.
This indicates that majority of COVID-19 suspects don't come forward for testing at the right time and are admitted to hospitals in a critical condition at the eleventh hour, he said.
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In order to ramp up testing in the district, screening camps will be set up in villages or wards where there are more than five active patients, 500 RT-PCRs and over 200 antigen tests will be done every day, Dr Shinde said.
The Dahanu MRHRU lab will be able to conduct 200 free tests from next week, he added.
As on Tuesday, the COVID-19 tally in Palghar stood at 22,745, while the death toll was at 456.
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