The ministry of health and family welfare on Tuesday announced it had decided to depute "two high-level multi-disciplinary teams” to Kerala and Maharashtra for COVID-19 management measures.
Kerala has accounted for the most number of daily COVID-19 cases in recent weeks in India, followed by Maharashtra.
A press release from the ministry of health and family welfare said, "At a time when almost all states/Union territories are showing a declining trend in number of cases and deaths due to COVID-19, Kerala and Maharashtra continue to report large number of cases. At present, these two states alone are contributing to almost 70 per cent active COVID-19 cases in the country."
The Central team to Maharashtra comprises experts from National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) and Dr. RML Hospital, while experts deputed to Kerala are from ministry of health and family welfare and Regional Office of Health & Family Welfare, Thiruvananthapuram, and Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi.
The ministry added, "The teams shall work closely with the State Health Departments, take a stock of on-ground situation and recommend necessary public health interventions to contain the large number of cases being reported by these states."
On Monday, Kerala reported 3,459 cases of COVID-19. The figures take the total number of COVID-19 cases in Kerala to 9,32,637. Kerala had as many as 69,207 active cases of COVID-19 on Monday. Seventeen more fatalities on Monday pushed the COVID-19 death toll in Kerala to 3,760.
On Monday, Maharashtra reported a total of 1,948 COVID-19 cases, taking the state's total tally to 20,28,347 cases. The total number of active cases in Maharashtra was 43,701. A total of 27 people died of COVID-19 on Monday, taking the state's fatality count to 51,109.
Data released from the ministry of health and family welfare on Tuesday said there are 1,63,353 active coronavirus infections in the country, which comprise 1.52 per cent of the total caseload of 1,07,66,245 cases.
(With PTI inputs)
