Centre rushes multi-disciplinary teams to Maha & Punjab in view of surge in Covid-19 cases

The Central government on Saturday (March 8, 2021) deputed high-level multi-disciplinary public health teams to Maharashtra and Punjab to evaluate the ground situation as these two states continue to report a surge in the number of daily new Covid-19 cases. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) said that the teams have been rushed to the states "to assist the State Health Departments in Covid-19 surveillance, control and containment measures."

Centre deputes high-level multi-disciplinary teams in Maha & Punjab

MoHFW has appointed Dr P Ravindran, Senior CMO, Disaster Management Cell, to lead the high-level team deployed in Maharashtra. However, Dr SK Singh, Director, National Center for Disease Control (NCDC), will lead the public health team, which is sent to Punjab. The ministry has said that the teams will figure out the reasons for the consistent increase in coronavirus cases. 

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The Ministry in its official statement said, "The teams visit the States immediately and will visit the hotspot areas in the States and ascertain reasons for the surge. They will also brief the Chief Secretary/Secretary (H) on their observations and remedial measures to be undertaken by the State Health authorities." The statement added, "The Union Government has been leading the fight against the Covid pandemic with a ‘Whole of Government’ and ‘Whole of Society’ approach under the umbrella strategy of ‘Cooperative Federalism’."

Last month, observing the upsurge in the Covid-19 cases in the country, the Union Ministry deputed high-level, multi-disciplinary teams to 10 states/UTs including Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir. The Centre had assigned the three-member teams to support the states in handling public health measures for Covid-19 management. Earlier, the Centre also asked the states and the UTs to increase the number of RT-PCR tests for a better understanding of the ground situation. 

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