Centre to deploy 20 ‘public health teams’ to worst hit districts

NEW DELHI: With the number of positive cases on the rise, the Health Ministry will soon be deploying ‘central public health teams’ to 20 worst-hit districts from various states for assistance. An official of the health ministry said that the decision was taken by the ministry to aid the various state health departments to manage the outbreak in the hotspots. Districts include Mumbai, Pune, South East and Central Delhi, Indore, Chennai, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Agra, Lucknow, Kolkata, Kurnool, Guntur, Thane, Ahmedabad and Krishna in Andhra Pradesh.

The teams would report to regional directors appointed by the ministry. These regional directors could be additional chief secretary/ principal secretary/ secretary of health of the respective state. The teams would submit report reports with their recommendations based on the observations from the area. The teams would be constituted with experts from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, JIPMER, National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW), National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health (AIIPH). 

As the number of Covid positive cases exceeds 42,000 in India, approximately 12,000 have reportedly recovered as of today.