Covid-19 Management: Centre Deploys High-Level Central Teams To Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh And West Bengal

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has deputed high level Central teams to Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal amid surge in the number of new Covid-19 cases in these states in recent days.

Each team comprises of a Joint 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 and clinical management protocol being followed by the state, a Health Ministry statement said on Friday (16 October).

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 will also guide in effectively managing the challenges related to timely diagnosis and follow up.

It should be noted that the daily new Covid-19 cases in the five states - Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh - have witnessed a sharp rise recently.

Currently, Karnataka has 1,13,557 active Covid-19 cases, followed by Kerala (94,609), West Bengal (31,984), Chhattisgarh (31,984) and Rajasthan (21587).

As an ongoing effort to strengthen efforts of various state/UT Governments for Covid-19 management, the Central government has been deputing Central teams from time to time to visit various States/UTs, the ministry said.

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, the ministry added.