New Delhi, Oct 16 : The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday 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 Joint Secretary, who is the 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 per cent of the total cases. The Cases per million stand at 8,906. Total number of recovered cases is 2,22,231 accounting for recovery rate of 69.90 per cent. The active Cases are 94,609, comprising 11.8 per cent of the total national figure. Total deaths in the state are 1,089 with case fatality rate of 0.34 per cent and deaths per million of 31. The TPM of Kerala stand at 53,518 and the positivity rate is 16.6 per cent. Karnataka has 7,43,848 total cases accounting for 10.1 per cent of the national figure. It has 11,010 cases per million population. 6,20,008 patients have recovered in the state resulting in a recovery rate of 83.35 per cent. The active cases are 1,13,557, 14.1 per cent of the national figure. The state has reported total of 10,283 fatalities, CFR of 1.38 per cent and 152 deaths per million population. The TPM is 95,674 and positivity rate is pegged at 11.5 per cent. Rajasthan has registered 1,67,279 total cases, 2,064 Cases per million and 1,43,984 total number of recoveries with recovery rate of 86.07 per cent. The active cases as on date are 21,587, 2.7 per cent share in the national numbers. The numbers of fatalities in the state is 1,708; case fatality rate is 1.02 per cent; and deaths per million stands at 21. TPM is 38,605 with positivity rate of 5.3 per cent. West Bengal has 3,09,417 total cases, 4.2 per cent 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 per cent. With 31,984 active cases, the state accounts for 4.0 per cent of the total pie. Total deaths are 5,870; case fatality rate is 1.90 per cent whereas the deaths per million population are 59. With 37,872 TPM, the positivity rate is 8.2 per cent. Chhattisgarh is reporting 1,53,515 total cases, 5,215 cases per million, 1,23,943 total recovered and 80.74 per cent recovery rate. It has 28,187 active cases comprising 3.5 per cent of the national figure. There have been 1,385 total deaths in the state accounting for the case fatality rate of 0.90 per cent and 47 deaths Per million. The TPM are 50,191 and the positivity rate is 10.4 per cent. As an ongoing effort to strengthen efforts of various State and UT governments for Covid management, the Central government has been deputing Central teams from time to time to visit various States and UTs. 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. /IANS