In a major relief for migrant workers who wish to travel back to their native villages outside Maharashtra, the state government has revoked the order for an individual medical certificate proving “fit to travel”.

Thermal screening of migrant workers and a check on any influenza-like symptoms will be done at the starting railway station. “Migrants don't need to stand in long queues to fetch a doctor certificate for travel,” Health Minister Rajesh Tope said.

CNBC-TV18 had highlighted the plight of migrant workers, who were facing difficulties in obtaining the fit for travel certificate across the state.

A health certificate was mandated for anyone stranded or wanting to return to the state, by authorities after home ministry had allowed trains to be transport thousands of workers. They were seen queueing up at municipal hospitals and private clinics across the country to fetch certificates. As these migrant workers have been out of jobs for over a month, making payments for the certificates was becoming a major issue.

So far, nearly 28,000 migrants from Maharashtra have managed to travel to their native places via special ‘Shramik’ trains.

Meanwhile, the health minister spoke about ramping up health infrastructure in the state, particularly in Mumbai, which has the highest number of coronavirus positive cases in the country. COVID-19 hospital beds, across government and private hospitals, are operating at 100 percent capacity already. Additional 2,000 hospital beds with oxygen support have been set up in Mumbai’s Goregaon, Race Course and BKC grounds.

Based on suggestions of the Central team and local civic body, the city is aggressively expanding institutional quarantining, especially for slums. Currently, 2 lakh people are in home quarantine and nearly 12,000 are in institutional quarantine across the state.

“We are hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst and are also requesting all railway, naval and army hospitals to make their hospitals and beds available for COVID-19 care,” Tope said.

He added that the state cabinet had approved the process of filling up vacant positions at government hospitals to deal with shortage of healthcare staff. “In the next two to three days, we will discuss and formulate ways to fill up vacant positions at government hospitals, despite the lockdown,” Tope said. With the number of COVID-19 cases rising in the state, public health facilities have been under stress, hence the Health Ministry is assess the manpower requirement and ways to bridge the gap with the Department of Medical Education and hospitals.

Private doctors have also been asked to help treat coronavirus patients. Tope has asked all private hospitals and doctors to keep their clinics open and start accepting patients for heart ailments, dialysis and deliveries at the earliest.

“If PPEs are not available it will be made available for private doctors too. Civil surgeons of districts can make PPE available for private doctors. All emergency surgeries like transplants, heart surgeries must function,” Tope said.