With the rise in cases in India, Centre has deployed high-level central teams to most affected districts having high case load of COVID-19, which includes Mumbai, Thane and Pune.
These teams will be deployed in 15 states -- Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Aurangabad, Palghar, Kolhapur, Solapur in Maharashtra; Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara in Guajrat; Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Dungarpurm Nagaur in Rajasthan; Chennai, Chengalpattu, Thiruvalluvar, Cuddalore, Ariyalur, Kanchipuram, Villupuram in Tamil Nadu; Kolkata, Howrah, 24 Paraganas North in West Bengal; North West, Central West, North in Delhi; Katihar, Darbhanga, Aurangabad, Madhepura in Bihar; Jaunpur, Gorakhpur, Etawah, Bhadohi in Uttar Pradesh; Nanital, Tehri, Garwhal, Haridwar in Uttrakhand; Cuttack, Puri, Kenrapara, Balangir, Nayagarh in Odisha; Golghat, Hojai, Karimganj, Lakhiipur Nagaon, Cachar in Assam; Ujjain, Burhanpur, Gwalior, Sagar, Morena in Madhya Pradesh; Hyderabad, Medchal Malkajgiri, Ranga Reddy, Adilbad in Telangana; Yadgir, Chikaballapura, Chitradurga, Udupi in Karnataka; Gurugram, Faridabad, Panipat, Jind in Haryana.
These multi-disciplinary teams are helping the states and UTs address challenges like testing bottlenecks, low tests per million population, high confirmation rates, risk of capacity shortfall over the next two months, potential bed shortage, growing case fatality rate, high doubling rate and sudden spike in active cases, etc, the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday said.
The three-member central teams comprise of two public health experts/epidemiologist/clinicians and a senior joint secretary level nodal officer for administrative handholding and improving governance, the ministry said.
These teams are working in the field and visiting healthcare facilities to support the state health department in implementation of containment measures and efficient treatment and clinical management of cases within the districts and cities, it said.
The ministry said, "In order to ensure better coordination, quick action on the ground, adoption of a more granular strategy, it is proposed that these districts and municipalities should regularly remain in touch with central teams which are already coordinating with the states." Such frequent interaction would further strengthen the surveillance, containment, testing and treatment-related action on the ground.
Many districts and municipalities have already formalised a dedicated core team at the district level comprising of medical and administrative officials to coordinate on a regular basis with the central team.
India registered over 9,500 COVID-19 cases for the sixth day in a row and 279 fatalities in the last 24 hours till Wednesday 8 am, pushing the country's COVID-19 tally to 2,76,583 and death toll to 7,745.
(Inputs from Agencies)
