Coronavirus: Centre sends teams to four municipalities in Haryana among 50 nationwide

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 9

As COVID-19 cases reach for a peak with record daily spikes in infections, the government on Tuesday deployed central teams in the 50 most affected municipalities of India that are contributing more than half the national burden of disease.

The teams were deployed after a decision was taken to ramp up containment, testing and tracing efforts at a meeting of the group of ministers chaired by Health Minister Harsh Vardhan.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar joined the meeting virtually.

The Ministry of Health latest said it has deployed high level multi-disciplinary teams to 15 states/UTs with more than 50 districts/municipal bodies that are witnessing high case load and high spurt of cases to assist the State Governments by providing technical support for containment and facilitate management of COVID-19 outbreak.

These states/UTs are: Maharashtra (7 districts/municipalities), 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).

Four Haryana municipalities where Central teams have been stationed for COVID management are Gurugram, Faridabad, Panipat and Jind.

The three-member teams consist of two public health experts/epidemiologists/clinician and a senior Joint Secretary level nodal officer for administrative handholding and improving governance.

“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,” said ministry.

The government has asked the affected districts/municipalities to regularly remain in touch with central teams which are already coordinating with the states.

The deployment comes as India’s COVID-19 cases reached 2,66,598 with 9,987 new cases reported on Tuesday, 12,9214 recoveries and 7,466 deaths.