The Centre will send a team led by Union health ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal to Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana between June 26 and 29 to help the states in their fight against the coronavirus, PTI reported. All the three states have recorded a very high rate of positive cases.

Maharashtra is India’s worst-affected state with 1,47,741 coronavirus cases, including 6,931 deaths, according to data from the health ministry. Gujarat has recorded 29,520 cases so far. The toll in the state is 1,753. Telangana, on the other hand, has 11,364 cases, including 230 deaths.

During its visit to the three states, the Centre’s team will review testing, hospitals and quarantine facilities, containment measures and treatment protocols, unidentified officials told PTI.

The team, which will include specialists and epidemiologists, will spend two days in Telangana and one each in Maharashtra and Gujarat, according to The Indian Express. An unidentified official told the newspaper that Telangana is especially a cause of concern for the government because of its low testing rate. “The confirmation rate is as high as 18%, nearly three times higher than the national average of 6.3%,” the official said.

“While it [testing] has increased [in Telangana], tests per million are still very low,” the official added. “Against the country average of around 4,800 tests per million, Telangana is at 1,200 tests per million. Neighbouring Andhra Pradesh is testing 9,000 per million and Tamil Nadu, 8,600 per million. Even Uttar Pradesh is at around 1,900 tests per million.”

In Maharashtra, the team will focus on Pune, Thane and Palghar, and not Mumbai, according to Hindustan Times. “These three districts have seen a sudden rise in the number of cases,” an official told the newspaper. “The central team will assist in plugging the loopholes and help the state formulate new strategies, if required.” In Gujarat, the team’s focus will be on the high death rate, which is 6%.


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India on Friday reported 17,296 new coronavirus cases – the biggest one-day increase in infections so far. The country’s tally rose to 4,90,401. The toll rose to 15,301 with 407 new deaths. More than 2.8 lakh people across the country have recovered.