The Union Health Ministry on Friday rushed high-level Central teams to Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal which have been reporting a surge in the number of new Covid cases in the recent days to help them manage the disease.
Each team comprises a joint secretary who will be the nodal officer for the concerned state, one public health expert, and one clinician to look after infection prevention practices, clinical management protocol being followed by the state, the Ministry said in a statement on Friday.
Kerala has reported a 3,17,929 cases, amounting to 8,909 infected per million. Recoveries are at 2,22,231, and active cases at 94,609. The state has reported 1,089 deaths so far and has a positivity rate of 16.6 per cent.
Similarly, Karnataka has 11,010 cases per million, with a recovery rate of 83.35 per cent and positivity rate of 11.5 per cent. It has so far reported 7,43,848 cases and a death toll of 10,283. Rajasthan has registered 1,67,279 cases, with number of fatalities at 1,708. Positivity rate is at 5.3 per cent while West Bengal has 3,09,417 cases amounting to 3,106 cases per million. Case fatality rate is 1.90 per cent and the positivity rate is 8.2 per cent.
These teams interact with the the 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.
“The teams will support the states' 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 ministry said.
India's case count was at 73,72, 394 as of Friday, with death toll at 1,127,06. Recoveries number 64,53,779, the active cases comprise 10.92 per cent of the total cases. The national recovery rate improved to 87.56 per cent on Friday.