Mumbai: Maharashtra witnessed two swine flu victims in a single night where 53-year-old Mumbai housewife and 42-year-old Pune teacher died after being diagnosed with the disease.
Shaken, the Maharashtra government is now clearly in crisis mode.
"If they had started his treatment earlier he might have survived," said Bajirao Rupanvar, victim's brother-in-law.
According to new guidelines, the government doctors can start a patient on Tamiflu even before swine flu is confirmed if the doctor strongly suspect the case to be affected with the H1N1 virus.
A top level committee, under the Chief Secretary, will monitor the situation daily and brief the media. Importantly, it has decided to allow private hospitals that have the facilities needed to treat swine flu.
However, the decision to close school due to swine flu outbreak has been left to individual schools and the local administration.
"The decision to close or not to close that will be left to the district administration. Sitting here we will not tell them what to do. And that remains that case for Mumbai as well. The District Collector will decide," said Ashok Chavan, Chief Minister, Maharashtra.
The same goes for cinema halls and other public gatherings. But the government is asking citizens to either avoid crowded areas or wear masks.
With two of the seasons biggest festivals, Dahi Handi and Ganesh Chaturthi, around the corner the government is clearly hard to get through them. In the next two days it will meet with festival organisers to figure out means of crowd control. Festival organisers are also preparing.
"We are training our volunteers. We will distribute masks to everyone there. We will make announcements to ask people who make fell ill to report themselves," said Jitendra Ahwad, NCP leader and a Dahi Handi organizer.
The Centre is also chipping in with special teams for Mumbai, Pune and Satara. Also, the government is dispatching one lakh Tamiflu tablets each for Mumbai and Pune to ensure everyone who needs it will have it.