Central Teams Rushed To 6 States Reporting Increased COVID-19 Cases

Coronavirus Cases in India: Active cases in country 1.67 per cent of the total infections. (File)

The central government has sent six high-level multi-disciplinary public health teams to six states reporting a high number of COVID-19 cases. The teams will assist the states of  Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Manipur in COVID-19 control and containment measures, the Health Ministry said on Friday.

These teams will gather a first-hand understanding of the challenges and issues being faced by the respective states and strengthen their ongoing activities by removing bottlenecks, the Health Ministry said.

The two-member high-level team to these states consists of a clinician and a public health expert.

"The team to Manipur will be led by Dr. L Swasticharan, Add. DDG & Director EMR; team to Arunachal Pradesh will be led by Dr. Sanjay Sadhukhan, Professor AIIH&PH; for Tripura Dr. RN Sinha Dir Professor, AIIH&PH; for Kerala Dr. Ruchi Jain, Public Health Specialist Gr. II, RoHFW; for Odisha Dr. A Dan, Public Health Specialist AIIH&PH and for Chhattisgarh Dr. Dibakar Sahu, Assistant Professor, AIIMS Raipur," the ministry said.

These teams will be supporting the respective states in their efforts for targeted Covid response and management, and effectively tackling the pandemic, it said. 

"The teams will visit the states immediately and monitor the overall implementation of COVID-19 management, especially in testing, including surveillance and containment operations; Covid appropriate behaviour and its enforcement; availability of hospital beds, sufficient logistics including ambulances, ventilators, medical oxygen etc., and COVID-19 vaccination progress. The teams will monitor the situation and also suggest remedial actions," it said.

The government has been leading the fight against the global pandemic with a ''Whole of Government'' and ''Whole of Society'' approach under the umbrella strategy of ''Cooperative Federalism'', the ministry stated.

As an ongoing effort to strengthen the efforts of the government of various state and union territories for Covid management, the centre has been deputing teams from time to time to visit various states and Union Territories, it said.

This morning, India reached the grim milestone of four lakh deaths from the coronavirus - the last 1,00,000 deaths were reported in just 39 days, according to a Reuters tally. India, however, has the lowest deaths per million population among the top 10 worst-hit countries.

The country's Covid chart continues to show improvement, with 46,617 cases being reported in the last 24 hours, a marginal drop of four per cent from yesterday. The country's test positivity rate (positive cases identified for every 100 tests) has been below the five per cent-mark for the 25th straight day now.