Minister details steps by India to prevent nCov
Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Monday informed the Lok Sabha that the Indian government is taking strong measures to prevent the spread of Novel coronavirus (2019 n-CoV) in India.
He stated that 1,818 flights covering 1,97,192 passengers were already screened apart from tight vigil on seas and land ports. The minister added that 369 symptomatic travellers were referred to isolation facilities and are being monitored.
In a suo motu statement, Dr Harsh Vardhan said that regular surveillance has also been initiated across the country for all those who had a travel history from China and for people having come into contact with such persons and having fever, cough or breathlessness.
Through Integrated Disease Surveillance network, all such persons are tracked and the government is presently keeping a tab on 9,452 passengers across 29 States/UTs in the country.
He added that screening of passengers is also going on at 12 major seaports and all minor ports, and land crossings to detect and prevent possible carriers of the coronavirus.
“In view of a confirmed case in Nepal, government has initiated screening at all integrated check posts from Nepal in collaboration with states of UP, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Sikkim and Bihar and Seema Shastra Bal (SSB) and Land Port Authorities,” the minister said.
“All the positive cases in India have travel history from Wuhan, China. They have been isolated and are reported to be clinically stable,” the minister said.
He further said that National Institute of Virology, Pune is the nodal laboratory conducting tests.
“As part of ICMR’s preparedness for emerging/ re-emerging infectious disease, NIV, Pune has established capacity for molecular diagnosis of nCoV. Next generation sequencing is also established. Testing of clinical samples has also been initiated in 11 more laboratories. As of now 1,510 samples have been tested and 1,507 samples were found negative, 3 samples have tested positive and 27 samples are under process,” Dr Harsh Vardhan said.