NEW DELHI: The government expressed concern over increasing number of Covid-19 cases in Mumbai and Pune, highlighting the gaps and measures suggested by Central teams that visited Maharashtra to combat the outbreak.The doubling rate in Pune is seven days, against a national average of over 10 days, an inter ministerial Central team has found.Health ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal said the dense population in these areas are posing a major challenge even as the government’s strategy is focused on identification and testing of suspected cases and high-risk contacts in containment zones.“In Maharashtra, Mumbai and Pune are very densely populated areas and it is important that as soon as we find a case, according to our containment strategy - whether it is a cluster or outbreak - we deploy sufficient manpower and health staff, and conduct house to house survey to identify symptomatic and high risk persons and those with acute respiratory illness and provide them with services. Challenge increases according to the level of population density,” Agarwal said.He added the three central teams sent to different states including Maharashtra have started working with state government and some results have started showing.The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) also released the feedback report written inter-ministerial central team (IMCT) sent to Maharashtra for on-the-spot evaluation.“The IMCT in Pune conducted detailed inspection at the Pimpri-Chinchwad, Baramati and Kharalwadi containment zones, shelter camps set up for the migrant workers, hospitals, Zila Parishad control room, PDS shops, vegetable market and Nagar Nigam war room. It found that the doubling rate in Pune is seven days which is higher than the national average. A positive case is tested on an average of 23 samples nationally, whereas in Pune it is found on an average of 9 samples,” MHA joint secretary Punya Salil Srivastava said.The IMCT has suggested that Pune should focus on identification of high risk population, surveillance, contact tracing and testing. It has also recommended that in slum areas, instead of home quarantine, institutional quarantining must be practiced.