The Union government has constituted five more Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) to assess COVID-19 preparedness and response in various states. These teams would make on-spot assessment of situation and issue necessary directions to state authorities and submit their report to Centre “in larger interest of general public”.
Two teams will visit Gujarat while one team each has been set up for Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. The new IMCTs would commence their visits at the earliest.
“The situation is especially serious in major hotspot districts or emerging hotspots like Ahmedabad and Surat (Gujarat); Thane (Maharashtra); Hyderabad (Telangana); and Chennai (Tamil Nadu). These teams would use expertise of the Centre and augment State efforts to fight and contain spread of COVID-19 effectively,” said a statement issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The IMCTs would be focusing on a range of issues including compliance and implementation of lockdown measures as per guidelines issued under the Disaster Management Act 2005; supply of essential commodities; social distancing in movement of people outside their homes; preparedness of health infrastructure, hospital facilities and sample statistics in the District; safety of health professionals, availability of test kits, PPEs, masks and other safety equipment; and conditions of the relief camps for labour and poor people, the MHA said.
The Centre had earlier formed six inter-ministerial teams to visit various states and assess the COVID-19 situation.
The home ministry observed that a number of violations of the lockdown measures have been reported from some of the districts, posing a serious health hazard and risk for spread of COVID-19.
“These violations include incidents ranging from violence on frontline healthcare professionals, attacks on police personnel, violations of social distancing norms in market places and opposition to setting up of quarantine centres and so on,” it noted.
The MHA warned that if the incidents of lockdown violations are allowed to occur without any restraining measures in hotspot districts/emerging hotspots or even places where large outbreaks or clusters may be expected, it would pose a serious health hazard for the people of the country.
The Centre reiterated its earlier direction that while the states/UTs can impose stricter measures than contemplated in the MHA Guidelines issued under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, they shall not dilute them.
