MUMBAI: Maharashtra needs to focus more on bringing down the rate of infections among the state’s healthcare personnel, which is one of the highest in the country, said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the ministry of health.

The country’s average rate of infections among healthcare personnel is 7% while for Maharashtra it is 21%, said Agarwal during a video conference with Chief Minster Uddhav Thackeray and other health department and divisional commissioners on Friday.

Agarwal was invited by the Maharashtra government to share his views. The joint secretary emphasised that the higher number of health care personnel being infected also puts a strain on the healthcare system, which is stretched in tackling the pandemic.

Agarwal also said that the state needed to bring down the death rate of Covid patients and they should focus more on ensuring that senior citizens get admitted to hospitals in a timely manner. He pointed out that 11 districts in the state had a higher death rate then compared to the state’s average death rate of 3.47 and that these districts need to focus to bring the death rate down. The country’s death rate is at 2.07.

Agarwal in the meeting pointed out that senior citizens do not like to get admitted to hospitals and only get admitted when their condition worsens and this can be avoided with timely intervention and surveys.