As per the document, these 10 states are Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Mizoram, Karnataka, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Punjab
New Delhi:
Multi-disciplinary central teams have been deployed in 10 states which are reporting either an increasing number of Omicron and COVID-19 cases or a slow vaccination pace, according to a Union Health Ministry office memorandum.
As per the document, these 10 states are Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Mizoram, Karnataka, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Punjab.
“In view of rapid surge in cases and deaths because of COVID-19, as reported by various news channels, the state governments, and noted in internal reviews, it has been seen that the number of Omicron cases has emerged in some states.
“It has also been observed that the pace of COVID-19 vaccination in these states is less than the national average. In wake of this situation, a decision has been taken to deploy multi-disciplinary central teams to 10 identified states some of which are either reporting increasing number of Omicron and COVID-19 cases or slow vaccination pace (list enclosed), to aid the efforts of the state and district administration for management of COVID-19,” the memorandum stated.
These teams will be stationed in the states for three to five days, and they will work along with the state health authorities, it said.
The teams will specifically look into areas of contact-tracing, including surveillance and containment operations, and COVID-19 testing, including sending of adequate samples from clusters to the INSACOG network for genome sequencing, the memo stated.
They will also look into enforcement of Covid-appropriate behaviour, availability of hospital beds, sufficient logistics, including ambulances, ventilators, and medical oxygen, and the COVID-19 vaccination progress.
The state-level central teams will assess the situation, suggest remedial actions and submit a report every evening by 7 pm on public health activities being undertaken, besides submitting the same to the state governments, the memo stated.
Meanwhile, as per the Union Health Ministry, India has reported 7,189 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, the nationwide case tally of the Omicron variant of coronavirus has reached 415.
Maharashtra has reported 1,485 new COVID-19 cases during the last 24 hours, said the state health department on Saturday. In the last 24 hours, 796 people have recovered from the infection, taking the total recoveries in the state to 65,02,039. Currently, the recovery rate in the state is 97.68 per cent.
12 people lost their lives to the deadly virus in the state during the last 24 hours. The case fatality rate in the state is 2.12 per cent. There are currently 9,102 active COVID-19 cases in the state.
Two new cases of Omicron variant of the COVID-19 were reported in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad on Saturday, said the state health department. With this, the tally of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in the state has gone up to 110.
Meanwhile, Mumbai reported 757 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday. No fatality was logged in the state capital in the last 24 hours, keeping the death toll total to 16,368. With this, the total number of cases in the city rose to 770,190. The active caseload in the city stands at 3,703.
Currently, 92,048 people are in-home quarantine and 887 in institutional quarantine, reads the bulletin. About 267 patients have been discharged in the last 24 hours, taking the tally of total patients discharged to 7,47,258.