E-Paper
Central govt teams rushed to 10 states with high Covid-19 caseload
Coronavirus update: The expert team is meant to support the state health departments in implementation of containment measures in the affected areas within the respective states’ districts or cities.
The Centre decided on Saturday to rush teams of health experts to 10 states with the maximum number of Covid-19 cases to help state governments contain the rapid spread of the infection.
“The ministry of health and family welfare has decided to deploy central teams to 10 states that have witnessed/are witnessing high case load and high spurt of cases. The teams will assist the state health departments of respective states to facilitate management of Covid-19 outbreak,” the ministry said in a statement on Saturday night.
The expert teams consist of a senior official from the health ministry, a joint secretary-level nodal officer, and a public health expert. The team is meant to support the state health departments in implementation of containment measures in the affected areas within the respective states’ districts or cities.
The teams will be deployed to Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Between them, the 10 states have 38,000 infections that make up 60% of India’s total Covid-19 caseload, as of Saturday, according to the HT dashboard.
Last week, the Centre had rushed 20 central teams of public health experts to 20 high case load districts. Another high-level team, led by joint secretary in the health ministry, Lav Agarwal, had also visited Mumbai to support efforts in Covid-19 response and management in India’s worst-affected state, Maharashtra.
Earlier in the day, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said that as of Saturday, the Covid-19 fatality rate in the country is 3.3%, and recovery rate 29.9%. He also said the doubling rate stood at 9.9 days over the past week. HT’s internal dashboard puts the figure at 10.7 days.
The announcement came at a review of Covid situation in north-eastern states that have reported a total of 194 cases. The maximum cases have been reported from Tripura (118).
“As of yesterday there are 2.41% present active Covid-19 patients in ICU [intensive care unit], 0.38% on ventilators and 1.88% on oxygen support. The testing capacity has increased in the country and it is 95,000 tests per day, with 332 government laboratories and 121 private laboratories operation for Covid testing. Cumulatively, 15,25,631 tests have been done so far for COVID-19,” said Harsh Vardhan.
He also said that surveillance for Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI) and Influenza Like Illness (ILI) should be intensified in unaffected districts and districts that have not reported cases for the last 14 days through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme network in collaboration with medical college hospitals.
Appreciating the efforts of states that have banned the use of chewing tobacco and imposed fines for spitting in public places, he said, “In view of the larger prevalence of non-smoking tobacco usage in some of the states, they should take concrete actions for prohibiting their wide usage and for prohibiting spitting in public places which shall help in preventing the spread of Covid-19. Strong reforms are needed in this direction.”
