Centre rushes teams to 6 states for Covid control measures

New Delhi, July 2 In its fight against the Covid pandemic and strengthen the efforts of the states and union territories, the Central government has rushed multi-disciplinary teams to six states for Covid-19 control and containment measures in view of the increased number of cases being reported by them.

In a statement, the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry said, "The Centre has today deputed multi-disciplinary teams to Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Manipur in view of the increased number of COVID-19 cases being reported by these states."

It said that these teams will interact with authorities of the states or union territories and get a first-hand understanding of the challenges and issues being faced by them so as to strengthen their ongoing activities and remove bottlenecks, if any.

The Ministry said that the team to Manipur will be led by Dr L. Swasticharan, Additional DDG and Director EMR; the team to Arunachal Pradesh will be led by Dr Sanjay Sadhukhan, Prof. AIIH&PH, for Tripura Dr R.N. Sinha Director Prof., 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.

It said that these teams will be supporting them in their efforts for targeted Covid response and management, and effectively tackling the pandemic.

It further said that the two-member high level team to these states consists of a clinician and a public health expert.

"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," it said.

The teams will monitor the situation and also suggest remedial actions.

The Central teams will assess the situation and suggest remedial actions on public health activities to the respective state governments. Copy of the report will also be provided to the Union Health Ministry, it added.