COVID-19: Centre sends 4 interministerial teams to Gujarat, Telangana, TN

New Delhi, Apr 24 () The Union Home Ministry has sent four new interministerial teams to monitor COVID-19 situation in Gujarat, Telangana and Tamil Nadu, officials said Friday.

These teams, headed by Additional Secretary-level officers, will visit Ahmedabad, Surat, Hyderabad and Chennai, Home Ministry Joint Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava told a press conference here.

These teams will be in addition to six interministerial central teams constituted earlier, she said.

The ministry had sent the six previous teams to Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal to review the implementation of the lockdown measures after making ground assessment of the situation prevailing in select districts.

Two of these teams have been sent to West Bengal -- one team to Kolkata, Howrah, North 24 Parganas and East Medinipur and the other to Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Kalimpong.

The teams comprise public health specialists and officers of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), whose expertise can be leveraged by the state government for management of COVID-19 pandemic.

The teams were deputed under the authority conferred on the Central government under Section 35 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 which states that "..the central government shall take all such measures as it deems necessary or expedient for the purpose of Disaster Management". ABS TIRTIR