Pune, Aug 9 (PTI) Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope expressed concern over the high positivity rate of COVID-19 cases in Kolhapur district after reviewing the situation there and Satara along with NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday.

He said Kolhapur's positivity rate was 35 per cent.

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"No other district in Maharashtra has that kind of rate. We will have to increase testing large-scale. We will have to trace people, and isolate co-morbid people by doing house to house survey," he said.

Tope said a "jumbo COVID facility" can be constructed in Satara if need be, adding that a new testing lab was being set up there to ensure results are received within 24 hours.

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Ambulances were being requisitioned as there was a shortage, he said.

He said Satara and Kolhapur were witnessing spike in cases but expressed confidence that the outbreak would be contained in the two places.

"If you study this virus and its spread, it gets to a peak and then flattens. Currently, it is peaking so cases will rise in the next 10-15 days before starting to fall," Tope said.

He added that this was his "personal estimate" as he had seen the same trajectory in Mumbai and Malegaon.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)