Centre to send IMCTs to four new cities to assess COVID-19 situation

The four cities where the teams will be sent are Ahmedabad, Surat, Hyderabad and Chennai.

The teams, which will be led by additional secretary level officers of the government, will consist of specialists of public health and disaster management.

Earlier, the Home Ministry had sent teams to West Bengal, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to assess the Coronavirus situation.

The Union Health Ministry on Friday said 1,684 new Coronavirus cases were reported in the last 24 hours while 15 districts across the country remained infection-free for the last 28 days.

In a press bulletin, joint secretary of Union Health Ministry, Lav Agarwal, said no new case in 80 districts has been reported in the last 14 days.

"We hope the number of districts reporting no new cases increases," Agarwal said in a news briefing. 

As per the latest government update, 23,077 people including 4,749 cured and 718 deceased have been infected till date.

The recovery rate now stands at 20.57%, said the Health Ministry on Friday.

Maharashtra, where the country's financial capital Mumbai is located, has reported the highest number of cases (6,430) keeping the state government run by a political coalition on toes.

Gujarat, which is the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is picking up the cases fast as the western part of the country has registered 2,624 cases followed by the national capital Delhi (2,376). 

(Image Credit: Amit Shah Twitter)