Inter-Ministerial Central Team in AP to review corona situation, meets Jawahar Reddy

A six-member Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) arrived in Andhra Pradesh to take stock of the corona virus situation as the number of positive cases climbed to 1,800 in the state.

The six-member team, including a senior public health specialist and a senior officer of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), held a meeting with special principal secretary (health) Jawahar Reddy on Friday and enquired about the situation in the state, especially about Kurnool, Guntur and Krishna districts where high number of positive cases were reported. On his part, Jawahar Reddy reportedly told the Inter-Ministerial Central Team that the high number of cases in the three districts was because of the increased testing.

The team will monitor hotspots in the state, mainly Kurnool, Guntur and Krishna districts which reported 7, 10 and 16 fresh cases in the last 24 hours taking their respective count to 540, 373 and 316. The team will first visit Guntur on Friday and review the situation there.

Other districts that reported high instances of infections include Nellore (96), Kadapa (96), Chittoor (82), Anantapur (83), Prakasam (61), West Godavari (59), East Godavari (46), Visakhapatnam (36) and Srikakulam (5). Vizianagaram lost its corona-free status on Thursday after the district reported three positive cases of Covid-19. The district reported the three cases after almost two months (56 days) since the first positive case was reported in the State.

The team will assess health infrastructure, disaster management, review the hospitalisation facilities in the state, preparation of the state in terms of available beds, ramping up the number of hospitals and care centres dedicated to Covid-19 management.

The central team will review the medical facilities at various hospitals and facilities in the state, assess the level of testing, availability of PPE and masks for health professionals, availability of oxygen beds, ICUs, number of surveillance teams. The team will submit a detailed report on the situation in the state following which a central plan of action will be suggested to further contain the virus and issue necessary directions to the Andhra Pradesh government for redressal. The central government has already sent inter-ministerial teams to monitor certain hotspot districts in several states including, Telangana, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal among others.