Rajesh Tope: Maharashtra govt soon to cap price for masks and sanitisers

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Tuesday said that soon notification will be issued by the State government for capping the prices of masks and sanitisers.

While addressing a press conference, Tope said, "We have reduced the cost of testing from ₹2,200 to ₹1,900. Initially, it was ₹4,000. Soon we will be issuing notification for capping prices of masks and sanitisers. We have asked the Centre to put sanitisers and mask in the list of essential commodities."

"Now people should pay ₹1,900 for visiting a lab. To pick up the swab there will be a different rate for that," he added.

"Our positivity rate is 19 per cent which we need to bring down to 9-10 per cent. We have been given a target to get the death rate to 1 per cent. Right now our death rate is 3.42 per cent. The state government is working on this. We are still focusing on the early detection system," said Tope.