India reports 31 coronavirus cases, all international passengers to be screened
ET Bureau |
28 confirmed cases of coronavirus in India: Health minister Harsh Vardhan
NEW DELHI: With a new case being reported in Ghaziabad on Thursday, India's COVID number is now at 31.
On Wednesday 23 new cases were reported, including 15 Italian tourists and a man in Gurgaon, even as the government decided to screen all passengers entering the country from abroad for the deadly virus.
The government is working intensively to ensure meaningful intervention, if needed, to deal with the impact of unfolding Covid-19 crisis in the country, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.
She said different ministries are working in tandem to deal with any impact of Covid-19, which has so far infected more than 94,000 people across the world and claimed some 3,222 lives.
Sitharaman said she has held meetings with industry representatives along with secretaries to assess the situation and shared the inputs with different ministries.
The total number of cases in the country has jumped to 31 with a new case confirmed in Gurgaon on Wednesday, when an employee of payments app Paytm was tested positive after returning from a vacation in Italy.
Paytm has shut its offices in Gurgaon and Noida for a couple of days to be sanitised. The patient “is receiving appropriate treatment and we are extending complete support to his family”, a company spokesperson said.
“As a precautionary measure, we have suggested his team members to get health tests done immediately,” the person said. “However, there will not be any impact on our daily operations and Paytm services will continue as usual.”
Sixteen of the new cases were reported from Jaipur, including wife of the 69-year old Italian tourist who was tested positive on Tuesday, 14 other tourists from Italy who had been travelling with them, and their Indian bus driver. They have been sent to Indo-Tibetan Border Police’s (ITBP) quarantine facility in Chhawla, Delhi, health minister Harsh Vardhan said.
Besides, six family members of the Delhi man who was found to be infected on Tuesday have tested positive for the virus, Vardhan said. All of them are in isolation in New Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital. The health ministry had earlier identified these six people from Agra as having “high viral load”.
The government has also decided to start universal screening for all passengers flying into the country from abroad for the virus at the airports besides testing people coming in through open borders.
Earlier, only passengers coming in from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia were being checked.
Union minister Prakash Javadekar said more than 6,00,000 people have been screened for the disease across 21 airports. Additionally, one million people coming in through the country’s open borders with Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar have also been screened, he said.
Health minister Vardhan said the government is also setting up additional labs where the confirmation test can be performed. Phase one of that had 15 labs, some of which are already functional. Phase two will have 19 new labs, he said.
The government has also directed all public hospitals in Delhi to be prepared for more cases. “We will ensure that all facilities are of the highest order to handle patients that require any isolation,” Vardhan said.
On Wednesday 23 new cases were reported, including 15 Italian tourists and a man in Gurgaon, even as the government decided to screen all passengers entering the country from abroad for the deadly virus.
The government is working intensively to ensure meaningful intervention, if needed, to deal with the impact of unfolding Covid-19 crisis in the country, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.
She said different ministries are working in tandem to deal with any impact of Covid-19, which has so far infected more than 94,000 people across the world and claimed some 3,222 lives.
Sitharaman said she has held meetings with industry representatives along with secretaries to assess the situation and shared the inputs with different ministries.
The total number of cases in the country has jumped to 31 with a new case confirmed in Gurgaon on Wednesday, when an employee of payments app Paytm was tested positive after returning from a vacation in Italy.
Paytm has shut its offices in Gurgaon and Noida for a couple of days to be sanitised. The patient “is receiving appropriate treatment and we are extending complete support to his family”, a company spokesperson said.
“As a precautionary measure, we have suggested his team members to get health tests done immediately,” the person said. “However, there will not be any impact on our daily operations and Paytm services will continue as usual.”
Sixteen of the new cases were reported from Jaipur, including wife of the 69-year old Italian tourist who was tested positive on Tuesday, 14 other tourists from Italy who had been travelling with them, and their Indian bus driver. They have been sent to Indo-Tibetan Border Police’s (ITBP) quarantine facility in Chhawla, Delhi, health minister Harsh Vardhan said.
Besides, six family members of the Delhi man who was found to be infected on Tuesday have tested positive for the virus, Vardhan said. All of them are in isolation in New Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital. The health ministry had earlier identified these six people from Agra as having “high viral load”.
The government has also decided to start universal screening for all passengers flying into the country from abroad for the virus at the airports besides testing people coming in through open borders.
Earlier, only passengers coming in from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia were being checked.
Union minister Prakash Javadekar said more than 6,00,000 people have been screened for the disease across 21 airports. Additionally, one million people coming in through the country’s open borders with Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar have also been screened, he said.
Health minister Vardhan said the government is also setting up additional labs where the confirmation test can be performed. Phase one of that had 15 labs, some of which are already functional. Phase two will have 19 new labs, he said.
The government has also directed all public hospitals in Delhi to be prepared for more cases. “We will ensure that all facilities are of the highest order to handle patients that require any isolation,” Vardhan said.
