215 people came in contact with Italian group in Raj: Min
JAIPUR: Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma on Wednesday said at least 215 people had come in contact with the Italian delegation of 23 tourists that visited various destinations in the state. Two of the tourists, a man and his wife, have tested positive for SARS-COV-2 in the state.
Previous reports had incorrectly put the strength of the group at 21.
The minister said in the state assembly that swab samples of 92 people have been taken, of which 51 have tested negative, and the reports of 41 others is awaited.
The state government is buying 50,000 units of personal protective equipment (PPE) kits; 500,000 N-95 masks and 500,000 triple-layer masks.
The minister told the assembly said that 59 people in Jhunjhunu, 44 in Bikaner, 14 each in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, six in Udaipur and 78 in Jaipur came in contact with the Italian tourist group.
Other than the two cases in Rajasthan; 14 other members of the Italian tour group, currently in quarantine in Delhi, have also tested positive in initial tests.
He said that Italy was the third largest country in the world affected by the disease and the tourists should have been screened.
The health minister said the tourists entered Rajasthan via road from Delhi. He said that state did not receive information about screening and travel plan of the tourists.
Until March 3, India had been screening passengers from only 12 countries: China, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Nepal, Indonesia, Italy, and Iran. On Wednesday, the authorities decided to screen all tourists entering the country.
Leader of the Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria said that the entire opposition is with the government and whatever precautions are required should be taken.
Speaker Rajendra Pareek said homeopathy practitioners in the clinic inside the assembly informed him about preventive medicine in homeopathy and these views can be also be noted. He said that there was no harm in taking the opinion of the practitioners.
India has a large number of people who believe in homeopathy and even has a central ministry for it, despite scientific evidence pointing to the medicinesystem’s inefficacy.
The health minister, in response, said that the state would follow guidelines issued by the Centre and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to decide the future course of action.