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With 34 people testing positive for the novel coronavirus in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conducted a review meeting Saturday to study the impact of the infection. COVID-19 has infected at least one lakh people in 90 countries and claimed the lives of over 3,400 so far.
Taking stock of the situation, the Prime Minister met officials and directed them to identify locations for sufficient quarantine facilities, PTI reported. He has also directed to make provisions for critical care in case the disease spreads further. Three positive cases of novel coronavirus — two persons from Ladakh with travel history to Iran and another from Tamil Nadu who had visited Oman — were reported in India, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 34 on Saturday.
“All departments should work in convergence and action should be initiated for creating awareness in community about the disease and the precautions to be taken,” the prime minister was quoted as saying in an official statement.
Complimenting departments for the work done so far, Modi added that in view of expert opinion, people should be advised to avoid mass gatherings as much as possible. He highlighted the need for advanced and adequate planning as well as timely response to help contain the spread of the epidemic.
The latest confirmed case in New Delhi was a resident of Uttam Nagar, who had travelled to Malaysia and Thailand. Before this, three people with travel history to Italy and Iran had tested positive for coronavirus in Delhi. Follow coronavirus outbreak LIVE Updates
A day after Tamil Nadu Health Minister C VIjayabaskar said the state is well-prepared to prevent or manage the spread of Coronavirus, a 45-year-old man who had returned to India from Muscat, Oman has been tested positive for the virus on Saturday.
The man has been admitted to an Isolation Ward at the Rajiv Gandhi Hospital in Chennai. The man had traveled from Chennai to Oman in last the week of February. After returning to Chennai, the man visited the Rajiv Gandhi Hospital on March 5 complaining of fever and cough. His samples were taken and sent to the Virology Institute in Pune for testing.
Speaking to indianexpress.com, Director of Public Health Dr. K Kolandaisamy said the reports which came on Saturday confirmed that the person has been tested positive and is currently stable.
In Tripura, a team of doctors, pharmacists and multi-purpose workers deployed by the state government has been keeping a tab on suspected patients of coronavirus crossing the Indo-Bangla border for the past few weeks. The team, clad in white aprons, N95 face-masks, sanitary gloves and armed with a handheld thermal scanner device, interrogates every single passenger coming inside the Indian territory from Bangladesh every day. It looks for high temperature, symptoms of flu, respiratory problems or any visible signs that might be related to coronavirus infection and is authorised to deny anyone having these symptoms entry into India.
The Karnataka health department on Saturday deputed Post Graduate students from medical colleges for surveillance activities at the airport and hospitals in Bengaluru. As per the latest bulletin by the Karnataka Health department, 789 people have been identified for observation, of them 251 persons have completed 28 days of observation and 525 persons are continuing under home quarantine. These include persons who have travelled to COVID-19 affected countries and contacts of COVID-19 positive cases
Two suspected cases of coronavirus were reported from Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday. Both of them have a travel history to Italy and South Korea respectively. They have been shifted to a quarantine facility in Government Medical College Hospital. “A preliminary report of their samples send to AIIMS Delhi has been tested positive. However, we are waiting for their final test reports before officially confirming them as coronavirus cases,” epidemilogist Dr Deepak Kapoor said.
A man from Telangana, who had travelled to Dubai, was also among the confirmed cases to be reported this week.
The Andhra Pradesh government has approved release of Rs 408 crore for equipping the health system with the capacity to effectively manage any contingency in the wake of the prevalence of novel coronavirus, reports PTI.
In Agra, six people who came in contact with the man from Delhi tested positive for the disease.
Apart from this, 16 Italian tourists and their Indian driver who had visited Rajasthan recently, tested positive for the virus, and are being treated at a private hospital in Gurgaon. India’s first three cases of coronavirus were reported from Kerala in February, all of whom have recovered and were students who had returned from China.
Explained | How to handle the coronavirus (COVID-19) scare
All international passengers, irrespective of their nationality, are mandated to undergo a universal medical screening, as per the government’s latest advisory. Adequate screening measures have been put in place and nine more airports have been added to the existing 21, bringing the total number to 30 airports where screening of passengers is being carried out.
Read | From Olympics to World Cup, all the sports events affected by coronavirus outbreak
The government has also confirmed “some cases of community transmission”, making India part of the small group of countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, and Italy, where community transmission has taken place.
In addition to 15 functioning laboratories and 19 more coming up, the government is in talks with the private sector to augment services for coronavirus patients and suspects.
Health Ministry officials said the Centre has put pre-call awareness messages on BSNL and Jio networks to educate people about the preventive measures regarding the spread of coronavirus, news agency ANI reported.
Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir administration announced the closure of all primary schools in Jammu and Samba districts till March 31 with immediate effect. Biometric attendance in J&K has also been suspended. There are two patients, with a travel history to Italy and South Korea, quarantined at the Government Medical College Hospital (GMC) in Jammu as a precautionary measure.
The answer is obviously “Yes” if your vacation destination happens to be China, Italy, Japan, South Korea, or Iran. The government has advised citizens to refrain from travelling to these countries. China is the epicentre of the outbreak — and the other four countries are among the worst affected. The government advisory has also asked citizens to avoid non-essential travel to all COVID-19 affected countries. That would mean at least 83 countries as of now, on every continent barring Antarctica. In the United States, 231 cases have been detected and 12 deaths have occurred so far.
Officials said the Indian government is in discussions with Iranian authorities and a ferry flight, carrying around 300 swabs of Indians suspected of having coronavirus infection, from Tehran is to land in the national capital. The flight, to be operated by Iran’s Mahan Air, would not have any passengers and Iranians in India would be taken back in the return flight. At present, there are around 2,000 Indians in Iran.
Also read | An Expert Explains: ‘Need not stop playing Holi for fear of COVID-19, but do avoid crowds’
The death toll due to coronavirus rose to 15 in the United States, with all but one death in Washington state, while the number of infections swelled to over 200, the Associated Press reported. Vice President Mike Pence also confired that 21 people aboard a cruise ship off the coast of California have tested positive for coronavirus.
US President Donald Trump is expected to sign an $8.3 billion measure to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak.
The US State Department raised its travel alert for Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, both of which border Iran, which has seen an exponential rise in coronavirus cases in the past few days.
Meanwhile, China on Saturday reported a quarter of new confirmed cases outside Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak. Mainland China reported the lowest number of new cases since the country’s National Health Commission (NHC) began publishing nationwide figures in January. Around the same time, major cities were placed on lockdown to contain the spread of the infection.
Coronavirus is believed to have been originated at a seafood market in late December last year.
South Korea reported 174 more cases of coronavirus on Saturday, bringing the nation’s total tally to 6,767 while the death toll remained unchanged at 44.
Italy, one of the worst-hit European nations, reported 197 deaths on Saturday, the largest daily increase in fatalities and more than 4,600 confirmed cases, BBC reported.
Iran has been one of the worst-hit countries outside China, with the country’s health ministry confirming around 4,747 cases of the infection on Friday and at least 124 deaths.
Stressing the fact that countries need to work together in fighting the coronavirus epidemic, the World Health Organisation on Friday said that all countries should make containing COVID-19 their top priority. It also praised Iran’s national action plan in combatting one of the worst outbreaks after a slow start.
Cameroon, Serbia, Togo, Peru, Vietnam and The Vatican reported the first cases of coronavirus on Friday.
WHO said that the mortality rate of COVID-19 was about 3.4 per cent, much higher than that of seasonal flu’s rate of less than 1 per cent.
Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), scheduled to happen in June, could be under threat due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. Given the current situation, Apple could be forced to cancel the event or do a virtual conference in June.
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