HYDERABAD: A central team, led by Joint Secretary of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Lav Agarwal, will be visiting Telangana as well as Gujarat and Maharashtra from June 26 to 29. The team will interact with the Health Department officials from the State government and have discussions on improving coordination to strengthen the ongoing efforts by the states for controlling the Covid-19 crisis.
While Gujarat and Maharashtra are one of the worst Covid-affected States, Telangana has been drawing flak from some quarters, first for the low number of testing and now for the sudden spike o f more than 800 cases per day after the State intensified testing in and around Hyderabad. The ruling TRS party in the State and BJP at the Centre have been trading barbs over the handling of Covid- 19 crisis in Telangana, the most recent being the State government accusing the Centre of diverting the Cobas 8800 machine from Chennai to Kolkata, although it was destined for Hyderabad.
The central teams, headed by senior bureaucrats from Delhi, also visited the State earlier to have a look at the Covid-19 management in the State. While those visits remained low profile, the latest visit gains significance in the backdrop of recent developments.