Coronavirus
ing in view the spread of COVID-19 virus in India and the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), by way of a special one-time dispensation, has decided to treat it as a notified disaster for the purpose of providing assistance under SDRF”.
The WHO has declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. The infection, which originated in the Wuhan city of China, has so far spread to more than 100 countries infecting over 1,20,000 people.
A senior health ministry official said seven people who tested positive, including five from Uttar Pradesh and one each from Rajasthan and Delhi, have been discharged after treatment.
Delhi has reported six positive cases and Uttar Pradesh 11 so far. Karnataka has six coronavirus patients, Maharashtra 14 and Ladakh three while Jammu and Kashmir reported two cases. Rajasthan, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab have reported one case each.
Kerala has recorded 19 cases, including three patients who were discharged last month after they recovered from the contagious infection.
The total number of 84 confirmed cases includes 17 foreigners – 16 Italian tourists and a Canadian, the ministry said.
Kumar said that more than 4,000 people who came in contact with those testing positive have been identified through contact tracing and are under surveillance. He added that there have been cases of people not willing to be quarantined despite coming in contact with people testing positive. Kumar said that a Mahan Air flight bringing back Indian passengers from Iran was scheduled to land in Mumbai on Saturday midnight. A special Air India flight is also being sent to Milan in Italy to bring back Indian students, he added.
The government on Friday declared masks, including N95, and hand sanitisers as ‘essential commodities’ under Essential Commodities Act in the wake of the coronavirus scare leading to shortages and black marketing of these items.
These items will remain under essential commodities segment till June-end, a move aimed at ensuring availability at reasonable prices and cracking down on hoarders and black marketeers.
Even as the WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic, the health ministry officials on Friday asked people not to panic, saying no community transmission of the virus has been observed and there has only been a few cases of local transmission so far.
The Centre, as part of its measures to contain the spread of the disease, on Friday announced that people will be allowed to travel through 19 of 37 land border checkposts from Saturday midnight and services of IndoBangladesh cross border passenger trains and buses will continue to remain suspended till April 15.