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Written by Anuradha Mascarenhas
| Pune |
Updated: February 3, 2021 11:27:47 am
The Kerala team has senior officials from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, along with experts from Regional Office of Health and Family Welfare, Thiruvananthapuram and Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi. (Representational image) The central government has decided to send two multi-disciplinary teams to Kerala and Maharashtra to collaborate with the state health authorities on further measures to be taken to contain the Covid19 pandemic.
Kerala and Maharashtra are currently contributing almost 70 per cent of all new cases being detected every day in the country. In every other state, the number of new cases has now fallen well below 1,000 per day. Kerala, on the other hand, continues to contribute more than 5,000 a day.
Dr Sujit Singh, director of National Centre for Disease Control told The Indian Express that while the numbers were not rising in these two states as well, the fact that fairly large number of cases were still being detected were a cause of worry.
“Clearly transmission is still going on in Kerala and Maharashtra. Though the numbers are (relatively) less, the infection is deep into the community. Delhi is testing as many if not more samples than Maharashtra, but the case load has dropped substantially in the capital,” he said.
The two teams will take stock of the ground situation, work with the state health departments and recommend necessary public health interventions to be taken, Singh said.
The team to Maharashtra will have experts from NCDC and RML Hospital in New Delhi, while the one going to Kerala has senior officials from health Ministry, along with experts from Lady Harding Medical College, New Delhi.
Dr Pradeep Awate, Maharashtra surveillance officer, said though the numbers in the state had declined significantly from a peak of more than 20,000 a day, many urban centres were continuing to report large number of cases.
“Cities like Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Nagpur and Nashik are reporting good numbers every day. The positivity rate has declined from 25 per cent to about 4.6 per cent though,” he said.
Awate said the review with the central teams would focus on the areas that are still witnessing active transmission of the cases.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd