Centre deploys teams to 15 states to help manage crisis
NEWDELHI: Centre has deployed a three-member team each in 50 districts of 15 states that are laden under a high burden of Covid-19 for direct monitoring and assitance in disease management.
The 15 states that have reported a surge in cases over the past few weeks are Maharashtra (7 districts), 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).
“There large clustering reported in some districts that needs meticulous implementation of containment strategies. The teams will look into ways that can be adopted for better containment and clinical management of cases. They will be in direct contact with the respective state governments on ground to chalk-out areas-specific plans,” said a health ministry official.
The three-member teams consist of two public health experts— an epidemiologist and a clinician— and a senior joint secretary level nodal officer for handholding states on administrative matters related to Covid-19 management. “Whatever bottlenecks are faced on ground in terms of getting approvals to follow certain protocols or specific measures needed to manage the situation it will be quickly addressed,” said the official.
The health ministry in a statement also said, “These teams are working in the field and visiting health care facilities to support the State health department in implementation of containment measures and efficient treatment/clinical management of cases within the districts/cities.”
The focus areas are to address gaps in testing, high confirmation rates, risk of capacity shortfall over the next two months and potential bed shortage, etc.
Many districts and municipalities have already constituted a dedicated core team at the district level to coordinate over regular basis directly with the central team for better information flow.
Experts say area-specific strategies should have been started early on. “That is how epidemics are contained by devising strategies that are specific to a particular geographical area. What works in one state may not work in another. And there should be no communication loss between the centre and the states,” says Dr Jacob John, ex-head of virology, CMC, Vellore.
As the lockdown is being lifted, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan urged everyone to download the Aarogya Setu app to help in self risk assessment and in protection against the disease while chairing the 16th meeting of the high-level group of ministers on coronavirus on Tuesday.