Sr public health teams to rushed to Maharashtra, Punjab as new cases continue to surge

Cumulative vaccination coverage more than 1.94 crore, nearly 15 lakh vaccine doses administered in last 24 hours

The Central Government has rushed high level multi-disciplinary public health teams to Maharashtra and Punjab in view of the increase in number of daily new COVID-19 cases being consistently reported by these States. They are being deployed to assist the State Health Departments in COVID-19 surveillance, control and containment measures.

The high level team to Maharashtra will be led by Dr P Ravindran, Sr CMO, Disaster Management Cell, MOHFW. While the public health team to Punjab will be led by Dr S K Singh, Director, National Center for Disease Control (NCDC), New Delhi.

The teams visit the States immediately and will visit the hotspot areas in the states and ascertain reasons for the surge. They will also brief the Chief Secretary/Secretary (H) on their observations and remedial measures to be undertaken by the state health authorities.

Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka and  Tamil Nadu have reported a high number of COVID-19 daily new cases. They cumulatively account for 82 per cent of the new cases reported in the past 24 hours, as per health ministry data of March 6, 11.14 am.

18,327 new cases were registered in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 10,216. It is followed by Kerala with 2,776 while Punjab reported 808 new cases.

As on Day-49 of the vaccination drive (March 5, 2021), total 14,92,201 vaccine doses were given. Out of which, 11,99,848 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 18,333 sessions for first dose (HCWs and FLWs) and 2,92,353 HCWs and FLWs received second dose of vaccine. Cumulative vaccination coverage is reportedly more than 1.94 crore till March 6, 7 am, with nearly 15 lakh vaccine doses administered in the last 24 hours, as per health ministry data.

(Edits by Express Healthcare team)