As Kerala reels under case load, Centre says will send expert team

The Centre on Wednesday said it will send a team of public health experts to Kerala to support the state’s Covid-19 management.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said the decision to send a team to Kerala came after the state logged 35,038 new cases over the last seven days.

“The Union Government has deployed a high level Central Team headed by Dr S K Singh, Director, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to Kerala. The team will reach the State day after tomorrow,” the Health Ministry said in a statement.

“The team will review the public health interventions in management of Covid-19 by the State Government of Kerala and support the State health authorities in these measures,”

The ministry said Kerala has reported 5,615 cases in the last 24 hours, while in the same time period, Maharashtra recorded 3,160 cases and Chhattisgarh registered 1,021 cases.

However it also pointed out that Kerala has also recorded the maximum number of recoveries over the past 24 hours at 4,922. “Maharashtra has registered another 2,828 daily recoveries while Chhattisgarh has reported 1,651 new recoveries in the past 24 hours,” the ministry said.

The ministry also confirmed that the total number of people infected with the new coronavirus strain first reported in the UK has now reached 71.