<span style="color: #222222;">The Centre has deputed high level multi-disciplinary teams to 10 states for supporting them in public health measures for targeted COVID response and management. The three-member multi-disciplinary teams are headed by Joint Secretary level officers in the Health Ministry. These teams which have rushed to the states including Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir will work closely with the state and local administration in order to ascertain reasons for recent surge in the number of COVID-19 cases.<br />''<br />''The Centre has also written to Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab and Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir which have been witnessing a rise in daily COVID cases, along with decreasing proportion of RT-PCR tests.<br />''<br />''In the letter written by the Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, he exhorted the state administration to focus on undertaking aggressive measures to break the chain of transmission and to ensure amplification of RT-PCR tests. These States/UTs have been advised to increase testing in a focussed manner in the affected districts with the appropriate split of RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen Tests. The Centre has reminded the State and Union Territories that any laxity in implementing stringent measures to curb the spread, especially in view of new strains of virus observed in certain countries, could compound the situation. The Union Health Secretary has separately requested the Chief Secretaries of 10 States and UTs to provide time to the High Level Central teams to debrief the respective Chief Secretaries at the conclusion of their visits.</span><br />