Health Minister Harsh Vardhan chairs high-level meeting, reviews measures to tackle Novel Coronavirus

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan Sarda on Saturday held a high-level review meeting with senior officers of the Health Ministry,  Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and National Cooperative Development Corporation (India) in Delhi to review preparedness and take required steps for prevention and management of Novel Coronavirus in India.

In the meeting, Sarda has directed for multidisciplinary central teams to be formed and sent to the seven states where thermal screening is being conducted at the designated airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kochi.

"The central team shall consist of a public health expert, a clinician and a microbiologist. The teams shall reach the respective states tomorrow. They shall review the end-to-end preparedness for management and control of nCoV in the states including that at the airports, for thermal screening and transferring of patients to hospitals for isolation, and shall also visit the tertiary hospitals attached to the airports for reviewing the isolation wards and availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and masks etc," a press release by the Health Ministry stated.

The health minister has also written to the chief ministers of all states to review the state preparedness for control and management of nCoV.

He has also assured support to the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand for the screening process at the state's border with Nepal, where a confirmed case of nCoV case has been reported.

Moreover, a 24x7 NCDC Call Centre has been made operational under the orders of the Health Minister to "monitor the list of contacts furnished by MEA; provide details of district and state surveillance officers to those who seek them; and in case of any clinical query, direct the concerned to the relevant Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) officer."

Providing an update on the effect of the virus in the county, he said that no nCoV case has been detected, however, eleven persons have been put under observation. Out of samples taken from these individuals, four passengers have been confirmed to be negative for nCoV by the ICMR-NIV Pune lab.

Earlier as precautionary measures, the Ministry of Health had instructed screening of international travellers from China at seven airports. Further, the travel advisory has been extended to 12 more airports in the country in addition to the current seven.

"Advisory has also been issued to all States/UTs for Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) surveillance to pick up any travel-related case reported in the community and follow up contacts of suspect/confirmed cases." the press release stated.

Ministry of Health apprised the Ministry of External Affairs about the issue, and immigration officers at the airports have been sensitized about the outbreak.

Many major international airports apart from India have also issued an alert regarding the virus, with passengers arriving from China, including Hong Kong, to be screened on arrival.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government on Thursday put on lockdown two cities - Wuhan and Huanggang - in an effort to stop the spread of the virus that killed 25 people and has infected nearly 830.

2019-nCoV, a strain of coronavirus, has led to an outbreak of viral pneumonia. It is also spread by patient to patient respiratory transmission.