NEW DELHI: The 'central public health teams' are assisting local authorities in conducting door-to-door surveillance as a measure to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Union Health Ministry had deployed these central public health teams to at least 20 districts reporting the maximum number of COVID-19 cases in the country.
These teams are reporting to Additional Chief Secretary/Principal Secretary/Secretary of Health of the respective State and assist the State's Health Departments in the implementation of containment measures for COVID-19 affected areas within these districts and cities.
"These districts were reporting a higher number of cases, that is, 65 per cent total of the caseload. The central team is assisting the State government in the implementation of a containment plan. One major focus of the Central team is to implement door to door surveillance to fight the COVID-19 infection," said the government official.
CLICK HERE FOR COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES
"Apart from contact tracing, the Central teams have to direct the local authorities in communicating with the households, enquiring about Reproductive Child Health (RCH), elderly's health, pregnant mothers, people in the family with pre-existing diseases," added the official.
He added that the state government has also to sensitise households on preventive measures related to the coronavirus.
ALSO READ | FM announces third tranche of COVID-19 relief package, amends Essential Commodity Act
The teams are deployed in 20 districts which include Mumbai, Thane, Pune in Maharashtra; Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodra in Gujarat; South East and Central District in Delhi; Bhopal, Indore in Madhya Pradesh; Chennai in Tamil Nadu, Hyderabad in Telangana; Jaipur, Jodhpur in Rajasthan; Agra, Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh; Kolkata in West Bengal and Kurnool, Guntur, Krishna in Andhra Pradesh.
The experts from All India Institute of Medical Sciences ( AIIMS) Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, JIPMER, National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW), National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health (AIIPH) among others are part of the team.
India has so far reported 85,940 cases of coronavirus out of which 30,153 are recovered/migrated cases. 2,752 people have lost their lives due to the virus so far.