Centre deploys teams in 50 municipal bodies with high Covid-19 cases

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has deployed high-level multi-disciplinary central teams to 15 states and Union Territories (UTs) covering more than 50 districts and municipal bodies that are witnessing high spurt of Covid-19 cases.

These teams will assist the state governments and UT administrations by providing technical support for containment and facilitate the management of the Covid-19 outbreak, the Health Ministry said.

The states and UTs where these teams have been deployed include Maharashtra (7 districts or municipalities), Telangana (4), Tamil Nadu (7), Rajasthan (5), Assam (6), Haryana (4), Gujarat (3), Karnataka (4), Uttarakhand (3), Madhya Pradesh (5), West Bengal (3), Delhi (3), Bihar (4), Uttar Pradesh (4) and Odisha (5).

The teams comprise two public health experts, epidemiologists, clinicians and a senior Joint Secretary level nodal officer for administrative handholding and improving governance.

These teams will work in the field and visit health care facilities to support the state health department in the implementation of containment measures and efficient treatment and clinical management of cases within the districts and cities.

In order to ensure better coordination, quick action on the ground, and adoption of a more granular strategy, it is proposed that these districts and municipalities should regularly remain in touch with the central teams which are already coordinating with the states.

"Such frequent interactions would further strengthen the surveillance, containment, testing and treatment related action on the ground," the Ministry said.

The central teams will assist the states and UTs in addressing some of the challenges faced by their authorities such as testing bottlenecks, low tests per million population, high confirmation rates, high testing confirmation rate, risk of capacity shortfall over the next two months, potential bed shortage, growing fatality rate, high doubling rate and sudden spike in active cases.

The Ministry also said that many districts and municipalities have already formalised a dedicated core team at the district level consisting of district level medical and administrative officials to coordinate with the central teams on a regular basis.