Central teams rushed to Chhattisgarh, Chandigarh amid rise in Covid cases

The Union Health Ministry has rushed two high-level multidisciplinary teams to Chhattisgarh and Chandigarh in view of a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases there.

The ministry on Friday said these teams will work with the respective governments of the state and the Union Territory to ascertain the reasons behind the surge, assist in undertaking gap analysis and recommend requisite COVID-19 control and containment measures.

The team to Chhattisgarh is headed by Dr S K Singh, Director, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and also has experts from the AIIMS, Raipur and All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health.

The team to Chandigarh is led by Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor in the Textiles Ministry Vijoy Kumar Singh and also has experts drawn from the RML Hospital and the Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi, it said.

"Chhattisgarh has recently witnessed a significant spurt in fresh COVID-19 cases as well as new deaths every day. Chandigarh has also seen a significant surge in new cases.

"The deployed teams shall visit the most affected districts/hotspots in the state and UT to take stock of on-ground implementation of public health interventions. They will share the key findings, recommendations and remedial measures to be taken up with the chief secretary/chief administrator," the ministry said in the statement.

The Union government has been leading the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic with a 'Whole of Government' approach, it said.

As an ongoing effort to strengthen efforts of various governments for COVID management, the central government has been deputing teams from time to time to visit various states and Union Territories.

These teams interact with the state and UT 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, the statement stated.

The reports of central teams are shared with the states for further follow up action.

The follow up and compliance on part of states is monitored by the Union Health Ministry, the statement said.

This deployment is the latest in a series of teams that the ministry has deputed over the last couple of months in view of spurt in cases being reported by many states, the statement said.