Centre rushes expert teams to 6 states with rising COVID case load

The Central government has rushed two-member expert teams to six states that have been showing increase in Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) case load, to assist in control and containment measures.

“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,” confirmed Union ministry of health and family welfare on Friday.

The two-member high level team to these states consists of a clinician and a public health expert. Teams will be supporting the states in their efforts for targeted Covid response and management, and effectively tackling the pandemic.

The team to Manipur will be led by Dr L Swasticharan, additional DDG and director, emergency medical response EMR; team to Arunachal Pradesh will be led by Dr Sanjay Sadhukhan, professor, All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health (AIIH & PH); for Tripura Dr RN Sinha, director-professor, (AIIH & PH); for Kerala Dr Ruchi Jain, public health specialist; for Odisha Dr A Dan, public health specialist (AIIH & PH); and for Chhattisgarh Dr Dibakar Sahu, assistant professor, AIIMS Raipur, will lead the team.

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. They will monitor the situation and also suggest remedial actions, according to the health ministry.

The Centre has been deputing teams from time to time to visit various states and Union Territories. These teams interact with the state authorities 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. Hindustan Times