High-level multi-disciplinary Central teams have been deployed by the Health Ministry in 15 States/Union Territories with more than 50 districts/municipal bodies that are witnessing a high case load and high spurt of cases to provide technical support for the containment and to facilitate management of the COVID-19 outbreak.
These States/UTs are — Maharashtra (seven districts/municipalities), Telangana (four), Tamil Nadu (seven), Rajasthan (five), Assam (six), Haryana (four), Gujarat (three), Karnataka (four), Uttarakhand (three), Madhya Pradesh (five), West Bengal (three), Delhi (three), Bihar (four), Uttar Pradesh (four), and Odisha (five).
The Health Ministry on Tuesday said that these teams would address challenges faced by the State/UT 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 cases fatality rate, high doubling rate, sudden spike in active cases, etc.
“The three-member teams are composed of two public health experts/epidemiologists/clinicians and a senior Joint Secretary level nodal officer for administrative hand-holding and improving governance,” noted a release issued by the Ministry.
This was announced after the 16th Group of Ministers meeting headed by Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday.
A senior health official noted that the Central teams were working in the field and visiting health care facilities to support the State health departments in the implementation of containment measures and efficient treatment/clinical management of cases within the districts/cities.
“In order to ensure better coordination, quick action on the ground, adoption of a more granular strategy, it is proposed that these districts/municipalities should regularly remain in touch with Central teams which are already coordinating with the States,” he added.
Many districts/municipalities had already formalised a dedicated core team at the district level comprising of district level medical and administrative officials to coordinate over regular basis with the Central team.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry has also issued direction on the use of homemade masks which includes never reusing a mask without cleaning, changing it when damp/humid and washing hands before using it.