The Central Government has rushed high level multi-disciplinary public health teams to Maharashtra and Punjab in view of the increase in number of daily new COVID-19 cases being consistently reported by these States. They are being deployed to assist the State Health Departments in COVID-19 surveillance, control and containment measures.

The high level team to Maharashtra will be led by Dr. P Ravindran, Sr. CMO, Disaster Management Cell, MOHFW. While the public health team to Punjab will be led by Dr. S K Singh, Director, National Center for Disease Control (NCDC), New Delhi.

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 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’. 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 reports of Central Teams are shared with the states for further follow up action. The follow up and compliance on part of states is monitored by the Union Ministry of Health.

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MV/SJ

HFW/Central Team to Punjab & Maharashtra/6^thMarch2021/3