Bhubaneswar: The Centre today deputed a multi-disciplinary team to Odisha along with five others states in view of the increased number of COVID-19 cases being reported by the states.

The five other states are Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Chhattisgarh and Manipur.

The team to Odisha will be led by Dr A Dan, Public Health Specialist AIIH&PH, to Manipur will be led by Dr L Swasticharan, Additional DDG and Director EMR; team to Arunachal Pradesh will be led by Dr Sanjay Sadhukhan, AIIH&PH Professor; for Tripura Dr RN Sinha Dir Professor, AIIH&PH for Kerala Dr Ruchi Jain, Public Health Specialist Gr II, RoHFW; and for Chhattisgarh Dr. Dibakar Sahu, Assistant Professor, AIIMS Raipur.

Teams will be supporting them in their efforts for targeted COVID response and management and effectively tackling the pandemic.

The two-member high level team to these states consists of a clinician and a public health expert. The teams will visit the States immediately and monitor overall implementation of COVID-19 management, especially in testing, including surveillance and containment operations; COVID Appropriate Behaviour and its enforcement; availability of hospital beds, sufficient logistics including ambulances, ventilators, medical oxygen etc., and COVID-19 Vaccination progress. The teams will monitor the situation and also suggest remedial actions.

The Central teams will assess the situation and suggest remedial actions on public health activities to the respective state governments. Copy of the report will also be provided to the Union Health Ministry.