Coronavirus Pandemic: 2 new cases take UP count to 11

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State Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh said the government might seek the support of the Army, Railways, and the Indian Medical Association to curb the spread of the disease.

“We have talked to the Army, Railways and the IMA,” he told reporters. “We have prepared around 1,000 doctors on call and if needed we will take help from everyone. We have trained 800 doctors for coronavirus, all our workers of health department are prepared for anything.”

The doctors at King George’s Medical University (KGMU) here said the patient who has tested positive was in an isolation ward. According to sources, she is a 35-year-old doctor from Toronto, and was in the city to meet her relatives. She arrived here on March 8, but did not show any symptoms during screening at the airport. She visited the hospital after developing fever and cough.

“One case has been confirmed in KGMU Lucknow,” said Dr Saurabh Pandey, a senior resident at the hospital’s medicine department who is handling coronavirus cases. “However, we are following the normal protocol and have sent the sample for final testing at National Institute of Virology, Pune. The samples take time in reaching NIV Pune and all they do is reconfirm our report just so that we can be sure. Unless denied by them, we consider the sample as positive. We both do the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test to confirm, which is the best possible test possible. Process of tracing all those who might have come in contact of the patient is going on.”

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KGMU spokesperson Dr Sudhir Singh said the woman’s husband accompanied her on the trip. He was also tested but his samples were found to be negative. He was expected to be discharged by Thursday evening, according to Dr D Himanshu of the medicine department. The hospital has reserved 12 beds for coronavirus patients. The number of beds will be increased, if needed, the hospital has said.

Earlier in the day, the state health directorate said in a medical bulletin that till date 3,316 travellers from countries battling Covid-19 infections had been tracked by district surveillance units, and placed under surveillance.

“The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the recent novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) epidemic affecting 105 countries as International Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) under International Health Regulation,” added the bulletin. “In this context, Uttar Pradesh government has strengthened the surveillance and control measures against the disease.”

The directorate said 757 travellers being tracked were in home isolation, while two were admitted to KGMU, one was in a hospital in Mathura, and another person was at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi.

“Moreover, 540 contacts of various positive cases at Delhi, Ghaziabad and Agra are also in fine health,” it added. “Eight of them are admitted at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital. Condition of all of them is stable. Total 2398 travelers have completed 28 days of observation after coming back from China. Uttar Pradesh has cross-notified 552 travelers to other states within India and details of 26 travelers have been shared with concerned authorities for international cross-notification.”

The bulletin also appeal to people to avoid non-essential foreign travel.