As coronavirus cases rise, Centre sends teams to four states
Even as India's coronavirus tally seems to be under control, some states are logging an alarming rise in infections, prompting the Centre to send teams there. On Thursday, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare deployed teams to Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Manipur to control the surge. Each team consists of three experts. A central team was deployed in Gujarat for the fourth time.
The Health Ministry blamed the spike in cases and fatalities in Delhi for the situation in Haryana and Rajasthan. "With the surge in the daily new cases and the spike in the daily fatalities in Delhi, the spill-over effect is being observed in the NCR, within the states of Haryana and Rajasthan, where the number of COVID-19 patients is on the rise," it said.
The ministry said the teams will be visiting districts that are reporting the most number of COVID-19 cases. They will assist the local authorities in strengthening containment, surveillance, and testing. They will also work toward preventing infection. "The Central teams shall also guide in effectively managing the challenges related to timely diagnosis and follow up," added the ministry.
The team deployed for Haryana is headed by AIIMS Director, Dr. Randeep Guleria; NITI Aayog's Dr. VK Paul will lead the team bound for Rajasthan. The Gujarat team will be headed by Dr. SK Singh of NCDC and Dr. L Swasticharan, Additional DDG, DHGS is leading the team bound for Manipur. The teams will also remove bottlenecks, if any, related to coronavirus management.
To note, Haryana and Manipur's coronavirus cases per million trump the national average of 6,492. Haryana has 7,341 COVID-19 cases per million and Manipur has 7,219 cases per million. Meanwhile, the corresponding tally for Gujarat is 3,000 cases and Rajasthan's tally stands at 2,867 COVID-19 cases per million. The countrywide tally for coronavirus cases is 90,04,365 with 1,32,162 succumbing till now.
Notably, the situation isn't satisfactory in Gujarat either. In October, Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan had held a meeting, where he noted that areas like Jamnagar and Junagadh have an alarming positivity rate. In fact, Ahmedabad and Surat were registering the highest number of cases almost daily. Considering the spike, Ahmedabad authorities imposed a "complete curfew" from 9:00 pm, Friday, till Monday 6:00 am.
