The Union Government has been leading the fight against the global pandemic with a ‘Whole of Government’ and ‘Whole of Society’ approach. As an ongoing effort to strengthen efforts of various State/UT Governments for COVID management, the Central Government has been deputing Central teams from time to time to visit various States/UTs. These teams interact with the State/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, if any.
The Centre has today deputed multi-disciplinary teams to Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Manipur in view of the increased number of COVID-19 cases being reported by these States. The team to Manipur will be led by Dr. L Swasticharan, Add. DDG & Director EMR; team to Arunachal Pradesh will be led by Dr. Sanjay Sadhukhan, Professor AIIH&PH; for Tripura Dr. R.N. Sinha Dir Professor, AIIH&PH; for Kerala Dr. Ruchi Jain, Public Health Specialist Gr. II, RoHFW; for Odisha Dr. A Dan, Public Health Specialist AIIH&PH and for Chhattisgarh Dr. Dibakar Sahu, Assistant Professor, AIIMS Raipur. Teams will be supporting them in their efforts for targeted COVID response and management, and effectively tackling the pandemic.
The two-member high level team to these states consists of a clinician and a public health expert. The teams will visit the States immediately and monitor the overall implementation of COVID-19 management, especially in testing, including surveillance and containment operations; COVID Appropriate Behaviour and its enforcement; availability of hospital beds, sufficient logistics including ambulances, ventilators, medical oxygen etc., and COVID-19 Vaccination progress. The teams will monitor the situation and also suggest remedial actions.
The Central teams will assess the situation and suggest remedial actions on public health activities to the respective state governments. Copy of the report will also be provided to the Union Health Ministry.