Centre To Dispatch Teams to 10 States With High COVID-19 Cases, Low Vaccination

The Centre will deploy teams in Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and 5 other states.

Amid concerns over Omicron spread, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday, 25 December, announced that the Centre will send multi-disciplinary teams to 10 states which are reporting an increasing number of COVID-19 cases or low vaccination rates.

(Photo: The Quint/Kamran Akhter)

Amid concerns over Omicron spread, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday, 25 December, announced that the Centre will send multi-disciplinary teams to 10 states which are reporting an increasing number of COVID-19 cases or low vaccination rates.

"A decision has been taken to deploy multi-disciplinary central teams to 10 identified states, some of which are either reporting an increasing number of Omicron and COVID-19 cases or slow vaccination pace, to aid the efforts of the state and district administration for management of COVID-19."

Health Ministry, as quoted by news agency ANI

The Centre will deploy teams in Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Mizoram, Karnataka, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Punjab.

What Will the Teams Do?

The multidisciplinary teams will be stationed in the states for 3-5 days, and work along with the state health authorities.

The teams will examine the areas of contact tracing, surveillance, containment operations, COVID-19 testing, enforcement of COVID-appropriate behaviours, vaccination progress, and the availability of hospital beds and other medical resources.

"The state-level central teams will assess the situation, suggest remedial measures and submit a report every evening on the public health activities being undertaken," as per the Health Ministry's memorandum.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, at a high-level COVID-19 review meeting on Thursday, directed officials to send teams to states with low vaccination, rising cases, and insufficient health infrastructure, in order to assist them in improving the situation, as per the prime minister's office.

Meanwhile, India on Friday reported 57 new Omicron cases, taking the tally of total cases of the highly-transmissible variant to 415.

The highest number of daily Omicron cases have been detected in Maharashtra (20), taking the tally of total Omicron cases reported by the state to 108.

Maharashtra is followed by Delhi, which reported 12 new Omicron cases on Friday.

Further, India recorded 7,189 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, as per the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.