The teams will assist state health departments in the 10 states (File)
The Health Ministry will send its teams to 10 states with surging coronavirus cases, it said in a statement on Saturday. The teams will help the state health departments implement containment measures in areas affected by coronavirus.
The teams, consisting of a senior Health Ministry officer, a joint secretary-level nodal officer and a public health expert, will be sent to Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
This is in addition to the 20 central teams of public health experts who were earlier sent to districts with high coronavirus cases, the statement said.
Earlier, 20 central public health teams were sent to nine states and Delhi to identify the gaps and support them in proper implementation of cluster containment plans and surveillance measures.
The teams were deployed in 20 districts of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.
All the 20 districts were in the red zone.
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had earlier expressed concerns over the high fatality rate among coronavirus patients in Gujarat and Maharashtra.
The Union Home Ministry, in a sharply-worded memo to Bengal on May 6, had said West Bengal has the highest rate of fatalities among coronavirus patients, low testing rate and worrying instances of attacks and ostracisation of frontline workers fighting the pandemic.
In India, the number of active COVID-19 cases stands at 39,834, while 17,847 have recovered and one patient has migrated, Union Health Ministry said. 59,662 coronavirus cases have been reported in India so far with 1,981 deaths.
Maharashtra with over 20,000 cases is the worst-hit state in the country followed by Gujarat (over 7,400 cases), Delhi (over 6,300 cases), Tamil Nadu (over 6,000 cases), Rajasthan (over 3,500 cases), Madhya Pradesh (over 3,300 cases) and Uttar Pradesh (over 3,000 cases).
The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to over 1,800 in Andhra Pradesh, over 1,700 in Punjab and over 1,100 in Telangana. West Bengal now has over 1,600 cases.