Thane, Feb 19 (PTI) Civic and police officials in Thane held a meeting on Friday to assess the COVID-19 situation in view of the surge in cases in some parts of Maharashtra, especially Vidarbha.

Officials said the meeting was chaired by Thane Municipal Commissioner Vipin Sharma who directed all departments to ensure COVID care facilities that had been used during the height of the outbreak can be reactivated as soon as the situation warrants.

Thane added 506 COVID-19 cases on Thursday and its overall tally currently stands at 2,59,125, while the death toll is 6,219.

Sharma said the positivity rate in the city had jumped from 2.5 per cent earlier to around 5 per cent in the past couple of days, but added there were enough number of beds, ventilators etc to tackle a surge.

He, however, refused to speak about the possibility of a lockdown in the city due to the spike in cases and called such talk "premature".

(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)