The Centre has sent high-level teams to five states - Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, and West Bengal - to check the recent surge in new COVID-19 cases.
Among these states, Karnataka (14.1 percent) has the highest share of the country's total active cases, and West Bengal has the highest case fatality rate (1.9 percent), the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) said on October 16.
The teams will include a joint secretary (nodal officer for the respective State) and a public health expert, and a clinician, the ministry said in a statement.
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"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 health ministry said.
The ministry said out of the five states, Kerala has the highest positivity rate (16.6 percent), while Rajasthan has the lowest (5.3 percent).
Karnataka has a positivity rate of 11.5 percent, while Chattisgarh and West Bengal have positivity rates of 10.4 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively.
India has so far reported more than 74 lakh cases of the novel coronavirus, of which 7.9 lakh are active cases.
Here's the tally of the five states, according to the health ministry's update on October 17:
> Karnataka - 7,51,390 cases (include recoveries, deaths and active cases)
> Kerala - 3,25,212 cases
> West Bengal - 3,13,188 cases
> Rajasthan - 1,69,289 cases
> Chhattisgarh - 1,55,987 cases Follow our full coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic here.
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