Lok Sabha Question No. 3185 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-08-06
Subject: National Centre for Disease Control
Ministry: HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
Asked by: Amol Ramsing Kolhe, Sunil Dattatray Tatkare, Ratansinh Magansinh Rathod, Subhash Ramrao Bhamre, DNV Senthilkumar. S., Kuldeep Rai Sharma

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

## DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO 3185 TO BE ANSWERED ON 06th AUGUST, 2021

## NATIONAL CENTRE FOR DISEASE CONTROL

## 3185 DR. AMOL RAMSING KOLHE:

SHRI SUNIL DATTATRAY TATKARE:

SHRI RATANSINH MAGANSINH RATHOD:

DR. SUBHASH RAMRAO BHAMRE:

DR. DNV SENTHILKUMAR. S.:

SHRI KULDEEP RAI SHARMA:

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  approved  establishment  of  new  branches  of  the  National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in all States/UTs and if so, the details thereof along with the financial outlay for this purpose;
- (b) the number of NCDC branches presently functioning in the country along with the details of employees working the these centres, State/UT/category-wise;
- (c) whether  the  Government  has  laid  down  any  criteria  for  the  appointment  of  Head  of various Departments in NCDC and if so, the details thereof along with the role played by NCDC in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic during first and second wave;
- (d) whether the shortage of Staff has adversely affected the functioning of NCDC and if so, the details thereof and the corrective steps taken in this regard; and
- (e) the steps taken/being taken by the Government to strengthen NCDC and modernize its laboratories/buildings and infrastructure?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE (DR. BHARATI PRAVIN PAWAR)

(a) to (e):

Government  has  approved  the  proposal  to  strengthen  and  establish  30  NCDC  branches (including strengthening of 8 existing) in country with financial outlay of Rs 548.48 Cr.

National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is based in Delhi and has, at present, 8 branches as under:

1. Alwar (Rajasthan)
2. Bengaluru (Karnataka)
3. Coonoor (Tamil Nadu)
4. Jagdalpur (Chattisgarh)
5. Kozhikode (Kerala)
6. Patna (Bihar)
7. Rajahmundry (Andhra Pradesh)
8. Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh).

The details of employees working in these centres are placed below:

|   S No. | Branch              | State/ UT      |   Total |
|---------|---------------------|----------------|---------|
|       1 | Alwar               | Rajasthan      |      14 |
|       2 | Bengaluru           | Karnataka      |       6 |
|       3 | Coonoor             | Tamil Nadu     |       8 |
|       4 | Jagdalpur           | Chhattisgarh   |       3 |
|       5 | Calicut (Kozhikode) | Kerala         |      13 |
|       6 | Patna               | Bihar          |       4 |
|       7 | Rajahmundr y        | Andhra Pradesh |      15 |
|       8 | Varanasi            | Uttar Pradesh  |      13 |

Director, NCDC is the head of the centre. The heads of each division at NCDC are designated by Director NCDC for smooth functioning of the divisions. The senior most Group 'A' Officer of the concerned Division is assigned the duty to work as HOD.

NCDC  has  played  a  critical  role  in  terms  of  disease  surveillance,  monitoring  of community  surveillance  at  the  field  level  and  quarantine  for  COVID-19  management  since beginning.    Through  Integrated  Disease  Surveillance  Programme  (IDSP)  NCDC  supports  the surveillance  of  International  travelers  with  history  of  exposure/travel  to  COVID  affected countries, quarantine and community surveillance of contacts.

ILI & SARI surveillance cases were detected by active house to house searches by field teams in non-affected areas to detect hidden transmission. NCDC also supports states through epidemiological investigation into super-spreader events.

NCDC also guided the preparation of guidelines for contact tracing, quarantine in home & health facilities, surveillance in containment zones, house to house case search, Trainings at land  border  crossing,  district  control  room,  dead  body  management,  disinfection  of  health facilities and quarantine centers.

Further, the Institution also supported laboratory testing capacity for COVID-19 through new  COBAS-6800,  automated  RNA  extractors  and  Next  Generation  Sequencer  for  Genome sequencing.

Central teams were deployed to various States for cluster containment across the country as and when required besides Sero-surveillance to assess the infection exposure. NCDC is also the nodal agency for genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 including monitoring of the COVID19 strains in view of the newly emerged variant of SARS-CoV-2.