AMN / NEW DELHI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday assured citizens there was “no need to panic” and that ministries were working together to contain the infection, which has killed over 3,100 people worldwide.
With an Italian tourist tested positive for novel Coronavirus in Rajasthan, taking the total number of cases in India to six so far,
The case was confirmed after the Italian patient’s blood samples that were sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune tested positive. The 69-year-old man, part of a group of 20 tourists, is admitted to an isolation ward of the SMS Hospital. “The patient is in isolation and is stable,” the Health Ministry said. The development comes a day after two new infections were detected in India — one in Delhi and the other in Hyderabad.
Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba holds review meet over coronavirus
Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba today held a review meeting with the Secretaries of concerned Ministries, Chief Secretaries and Health Secretaries of the States through video conference to review and assess the action taken for containment of COVID-19. The travel restrictions imposed from yesterday were reviewed and shared with the States.
The States were asked to monitor the airport management for effective screening. Guidelines on cluster management of COVID-19 have been communicated to the States two days ago. The operationalisation of the guidelines was emphasised upon and the Chief Secretaries were requested to review it. The States were requested to hold coordination meetings with the related Ministries.
During the meeting, it was decided that District Collectors will now be involved in cluster management in their district. They should hold coordination meetings and ensure that teams at the district, block and village levels are made for cluster management as per the SOPs communicated. They will hold meetings with hospital associations to identify isolation wards. Health Ministry is working with FICCI to work out detailed Standard Operating Procedures for COVID-19 management in private hospitals.
Indo Tibetan Border Police, ITBP has said that no fresh symptoms of Corona Virus is seen among the 112 Wuhan evacuees till now. All 112 evacuees taken from Wuhan, China housed at ITBP Chhawla Quarantine Facility, New Delhi were found negative in Corona Virus at the first test of samples on Sunday. The group includes 80 males, 32 females, and 5 children including 76 Indians and 36 foreign nationals and also includes 8 families. The group of foreign nationals includes 23 from Bangladesh, 6 from China, 2 each from Myanmar and Maldives, and 1 each from Madagascar, South Africa and the US.
All of them are being given all the basic facilities at the Centre as done with a previous lot of evacuees. Daily monitoring and checkups are also being undertaken by the ITBP medicos. The expected quarantine period is 14 days. The second sampling is expected to be done on the 14th day of the Quarantine period and if that also results as negative, then all 112 persons will be released from the Centre. Emergency arrangements have also been made at the Centre including isolation beds and Ambulances.
Over ten lakh 24 thousand people have been screened as of now at the Nepal border in light of the Novel Coronavirus outbreak. More than 3,695 Gram Sabha meetings have been conducted in 21 bordering districts in five states of Uttarakhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Sikkim.
More than five lakh passengers have been screened at different airports. Passengers are further monitored under community surveillance through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, IDSP network on a daily basis. In all, 25 thousand 738 passengers are under community surveillance of the IDSP network. Briefing media in New Delhi yesterday, Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said, 15 labs are functional and 19 more will be made operational soon. He asserted that the Government is prepared to tackle any situation arising out of COVID-19 and that the issue is being constantly monitored by the concerned Group of Ministers.
Out of five positive cases, three earlier patients in Kerala have already been discharged from the hospital. Two new positive cases were found yesterday – one in New Delhi and others in Telangana.
The government has asked Indian citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Singapore, South Korea, Iran and Italy. People coming from South Korea, Iran and Italy or having such travel history since the 10th of February may be quarantined for 14 days on arrival to India.