Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has deputed high level Central teams to Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. These States have been reporting a surge in the number of new COVID cases in the recent days.

Each team comprises of a Jt. Secretary (nodal officer for the respective State), one public health expert to look after the public health aspects, one clinician to look after infection prevention practices, clinical management protocol being followed by the State.

The teams will support the State efforts towards strengthening containment, surveillance, testing, infection prevention and control measures, and efficient clinical management of the positive cases. The Central teams shall also guide in effectively managing the challenges related to timely diagnosis and follow up.

The total cases in Kerala are 3,17,929 which form 4.3% of the total cases. The Cases per Million stand at 8906. Total number of Recovered Cases is 2,22,231 accounting for Recovery Rate of 69.90%. The Active Cases are 94,609 (comprising 11.8% of the total national figure). Total deaths in the State are 1089 with Case Fatality Rate of  0.34% and Deaths Per Million of 31. The TPM of Kerala stand at 53518 and Positivity Rate is 16.6%.

Karnataka is reporting 7,43,848 Total Cases accounting for 10.1% of the national figure. It has 11,010 cases per million population. 6,20,008 patients have recovered in the State resulting in Recovery Rate of 83.35%. The Active Cases  are 1,13,557 (14.1% of national figure). The State has reported total of 10,283 fatalities, CFR of 1.38% and 152 Deaths per Million population.  The TPM is 95674 and Positivity Rate is pegged at 11.5%.

Rajasthan has registered 1,67,279 Total Cases (% share in total: 2.3%), 2,064 Cases Per million and 1,43,984 total number of recoveries with Recovery Rate of 86.07%. The Active Cases as on date are 21,587 (2.7% share in the national numbers). The numbers of fatalities in the State is 1,708; Case Fatality Rate is 1.02%; and Deaths Per Million stands at 21. TPM is 38,605 with Positivity Rate of 5.3%.

West Bengal has 3,09,417 Total Cases (4.2% of the national cases) amounting to 3,106 Cases Per million population. Total Recovered are 2,71,563 and the Recovery Rate is 87.77%. With 31,984 Active Cases, the State accounts for 4.0% of the total pie. Total Deaths are 5,870; Case Fatality Rate is 1.90% whereas the Deaths per Million population are 59. 37,872 TPM, the Positivity Rate is 8.2%.

Chhattisgarh is reporting 1,53,515 Total Cases (% Share in Total Cases - 2.1%), 5,215 Cases per Million,  1,23,943 Total Recovered and 80.74% Recovery Rate. It has 28,187 Active Cases comprising 3.5% of the national figure. There have been 1385 Total Deaths in the State accounting for Case Fatality Rate of 0.90% and 47 Deaths Per Million. The TPM are 50191 and Positivity Rate is 10.4%.

As an ongoing effort to strengthen efforts of various State/UT Governments for COVID management, the Central Government has been deputing Central teams from time to time to visit various States/UTs. These teams interact with the State/UT authorities and get a first hand understanding of the challenges and issues being faced by them so as to strengthen their ongoing activities and remove bottlenecks, if any.

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MV

HFW/COVID Central teams 5 states/16October2020/1