Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday (March 5, 2020) assured that the government was taking all necessary measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus in India. In the past few days, there has been a surge of COVID-19 cases with cases reported from Delhi, Jaipur, Agra, Hyderabad.
While giving a statement at the Upper House of the Parliament, the minister informed that so far a total of 29 people have tested positive for the virus who being monitored and are reported to be stable. The number includes the three initial cases in Kerala who have since recovered and have been discharged.He claimed that his ministry was constantly reviewing the evolving scenario and also the Cabinet Secretary was taking regular reviews with all related ministries of Health, Defence, Ministry of External Affairs, Civil Aviation, Home, Textiles, Pharma, Commerce and other officials including with State Chief Secretaries.
The BJP leader said that timely travel advisories were issued as and when the situation on the global scale demanded it and that even now the advisories are getting revised, accordingly. “Passengers coming to India are being screened regularly and as on March 4, a total of 6241 flights have been screened covering a total of 6,11,167 passengers. Teams of Specialist doctors were sent to all the airports to ensure effective screening and arrangement for isolation in the attached hospitals,” he said.
Screening of passengers has also been initiated in 12 major seaports and 65 minor ports in the country to identify passengers and crew coming from China and to isolate them in case they are found symptomatic. As on March 4, as many as 16,076 persons have been screened at the ports.
He mentioned the two special Air India flights between Delhi and China’s Wuhan on January 31 and February 1, 2020 that brought back a total of 654 passengers including 647 Indian citizens (including two Indian Embassy officials who were on the ground in Wuhan to coordinate the evacuation operation) and 7 Maldivian nationals. “These evacuees were kept in Army Quarantine Centre at Manesar and ITBP Camp at Chhawla. All these evacuees were tested after 14 days and on
being found negative, discharged on February 18, 2020,” he said.
Talking about the Indian pilgrims and students stranded at Tehran and Quam cities in Iran, Harsh Vardhan said the government is following up with Iranian authorities for the well-being of the Indian citizens and to execute an evacuation plan as per need.