The Union Health Ministry on Saturday confirmed three new patients of the novel coronavirus infection, taking the total number of cases in India to 34. Two of the new patients were from Ladakh and had recently traveled to Iran, while the third person was from Tamil Nadu with travel history from Oman.
India said it had received 108 samples from Iran earlier in the day, and they were being tested at All India Institute of Medical Sciences. A total of 7.26 lakh passengers from 7,108 flights have been screened at airports. Fifty-two laboratories are now testing for the coronavirus, the ministry said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting to review the situation and action taken so far by various ministries. During the meeting, the representatives from various ministries discussed matters related to the need for continued vigil at all airports, seaports and land border crossings, community level surveillance as per protocol, and ensuring availability of sufficient beds for isolation.
Modi praised all departments for the steps taken so far to stop the epidemic from spreading, and stressed on the need to create awareness about the disease in various communities. He also asked health officials to identify best practices for COVID-19 management from across the world and within the states and adopt them to the Indian context.
Modi also called for an immediate exercise be taken up to identify sufficient locations for quarantine and also for critical care provisioning in case the disease spread, the government said. Officials were instructed to plan for early testing and evacuation of Indians from Iran.
Earlier in the day, the prime minister appealed to people to stay away from rumours, and to greet people with a “namaste” instead of a handshake.
Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir administration said on Saturday that the test reports of two people suspected of having contracted the coronavirus had been received. The Union Territory also announced that all primary schools in Jammu, Samba, Srinagar, Bandipora, Budgam and Baramulla districts will remain closed – the first two till March 31 and the others till further orders.
The Centre on Saturday put pre-call awareness messages on BSNL and Jio phone connections in order to make people aware of preventive measures against the coronavirus, ANI reported.
Meanwhile, two out of three suspected coronavirus patients who returned from Italy have been tested positive in the preliminary test reports received by medical authorities in Amritsar, The Times of India reported. All three, who are members of the same family, had arrived in Amritsar from Italy on March 3.
In Rajasthan, the state’s Additional Chief Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said all the samples collected from suspected coronavirus cases in the state have tested negative, except for those of an Italian couple, PTI reported. “The total number of samples tested so far is 282,” he says. “Of those, 280 have tested negative and two positive.” The Italian couple has been admitted to the SMS Hospital in Jaipur.
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