The Health Ministry has dispatched central teams to Bengaluru and five megacities to review public health measures being undertaken for COVID-19, which has been spreading rapidly through population-dense areas.
Besides Bengaluru, the central teams are also being sent to Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi, which have witnessed a sudden spurt in infections this month.
The central teams are being deputed to provide technical support and handhold the state health departments and municipal health officials to review public health measures being undertaken for COVID-19, a health ministry official said.
The teams are expected to visit the cities within the next one week and submit daily reports of activities undertaken to the state health department and the central government.
“They will inform them regarding any issue of urgent importance and also submit a report of its observations and suggestions before concluding the visit,” the official said.
A review of the implementation of containment strategies over the past few weeks had revealed a delay in communication of guidelines at the district levels, laxity in contact tracing and surveillance of vulnerable groups of the population had emerged as the sticking points.
Some states had also reported inadequate testing, high confirmation rates and shortcomings in clinical management of patients as reasons for high death rate.
On Tuesday, the health ministry had assigned central teams to 50 municipalities/districts that were witnessing a high caseload and sudden spurt in cases.
On Wednesday, the Health Ministry also ordered all hospitals empanelled under the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) and notified as COVID-19 hospitals to provide medical care to all beneficiaries of the scheme as per the norms for all COVID-related treatments.
Similarly, the ministry also directed all the CGHS-empanelled hospitals, which were not notified as COVID hospitals shall not deny treatment facilities/admission to CGHS beneficiaries and shall charge as per CGHS norms, for all other treatments.