Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Dec.25: In light of growing concerns about the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the Centre has decided to dispatch special multidisciplinary teams to ten states and union territories that are either reporting a high number of infections from the new strain or have a slow rate of coronavirus disease vaccination.
“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 have emerged in some states,” the Union ministry of health and family welfare said in a letter.
The 10 states where the central multidisciplinary teams are to be deployed are Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Mizoram, Karnataka, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Punjab.
“It has also been observed that the pace of Covid-19 vaccination in these states is less than the national average,” the letter added.
“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 an 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.”
According to the health ministry letter, the central teams would be stationed in the designated states for three to five days and will operate alongside state health officials.
According to the ministry, these teams will focus on contact tracing, which includes surveillance, containment operations, and Covid-19 testing, as well as delivering sufficient samples from clusters to the INSACOG network for genome sequencing.
The teams will also be in charge of enforcing Covid-appropriate behaviour, as well as the availability of hospital beds, adequate logistics (such as ambulances, ventilators and medical oxygen) and the progress of Covid-19 vaccination in the states.
The state-level central teams will assess the situation, make recommendations, and submit a report on public health initiatives to both the federal and state governments every evening by 7 p.m., according to the memorandum.
India recorded 415 instances of the Omicron variant on Saturday, up from 358 on Friday, as some states imposed a slew of restrictions to stem the spread. 115 of the 415 cases discovered in 17 states and union territories have already been recovered.
Maharashtra has the most Omicron cases with 108, followed by Delhi with 79, Gujarat with 43, Telangana with 38, Kerala with 37, Tamil Nadu with 34, and Karnataka with 31.
