All travellers from China from January 15 to be tested for novel coronavirus

New Delhi, January 31, 2020

All those who have come from China after January 15 will be tested for novel coronavirus (nCoV) as there in an incubation period of 14 days for the virus.

Reviewing the preparedness for tackling the entry and spreading of the virus, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba yesterday stressed the need for 14 days’ home isolation for all those who have returned from China. He also said trips to China should be avoided.

The Ministries of Health & Family Welfare, External Affairs, Defence, Home Affairs, Civil Aviation, Information & Broadcasting, Labour & Employment and Shipping participated in the meeting.

A video conference with the Chief Secretaries of the States and UTs was also taken by the Cabinet Secretary.

The meeting decided to augment the lab facilities. Six more labs started functioning from January 30. These are NIV Bengaluru Unit, Victoria Hospital Campus, KR Road, Fort, Bengaluru, AIIMS, New Delhi, NCDC, Delhi (5) Kasturba Hospital for infectious diseases, Mumbai (8) NIV – Kerala Unit.

Another six will start functioning from today. These are ICMR – NICED, Kolkata; GMC, Secunderabad; KGMU, Lucknow; SMS, Jaipur; IGGMC, Nagpur and KIPMR, Chennai.

Discharge portal for patients has been prepared by DGHS which is being disseminated. It was decided to put up check-posts in relevant tourist locations for better surveillance.

Gram panchayats were being organised to make people aware of the symptoms, precautions and measures taken by the State Governments for tackling the virus in villages bordering Nepal.

States have also been advised to open control rooms, appoint a nodal officer and popularize the control room number. IEC material is to be prepared in the local language by the concerned States.

In China, where the outbreak originated, as on January 30, a total of 7711 confirmed cases were reported by 31 provinces. There were 1370 serious cases, 170 deaths, 124 discharged and cured cases and 12167 suspected cases. Most of the deaths reported were among the elderly with co-morbid conditions.

The number of reported confirmed cases abroad are Thailand (14), Singapore (10), Australia (5), USA (5), Japan (8), South Korea (4), Malaysia (7), France (4), Vietnam (2) Canada (2), Nepal (1), Cambodia (1), Sri Lanka (1) Germany (4), UAE (4), Hong Kong (10), Macao (7), Taiwan (8), Finland (1) and Angola (1).

In India, one positive case of novel coronavirus, of a student studying in the Wuhan University has been reported in Kerala. The patient has tested positive for novel coronavirus and is in isolation in the hospital. The patient is stable and is being closely monitored.

According to screening data from 21 airports, the total flights screened were 234. The total number of passengers screened was 43,346.

The National Institute of Virology, Pune is fully geared up to test samples of nCoV. Adequate lab reagents are available with NIV, Pune to test 5,000 samples. As many as 49 samples have been referred to NIV for testing. Of these, 48 have tested as negative.

NNN