The Union health ministry on Sunday confirmed five more cases of the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in Kerala, taking the total number of infected patients in India to 39 even as states across the country stepped up efforts to stem the spread of the virus that has shown little signs of abating
globally.
Two other people – one in New Delhi and one in Agra – tested positive for Covid-19 in preliminary tests, adding to the five others who were diagnosed a day before. A confirmation for the suspected cases is awaited from the Union government’s National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, which is the final certifying authority for all positive tests in the country.
The novel coronavirus, officially named SARS-Cov-2, has killed over 3,600 people and affected more than 108,000 across 95 countries since its outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. The Indian government has been screening all international passengers entering the country since Thursday. The Centre on Sunday added the US, France and Spain to the list of 15 high-risk countries from where passengers arriving in India will not just be screened for symptoms but will also be isolated from others through separate aerobridges, and will be put under a stricter community surveillance programme if the disease is suspected.
There are now 39 confirmed cases in the country: 25 housed in the National Capital Region, followed by Kerala (8), Jaipur (2), Ladakh (2), Telangana (1) and Tamil Nadu (1). This figure includes 16 Italian tourists, who are in isolation centres in NCR, and three Kerala students who have recovered from the disease.
The number of infections in the country has spiked since last week, seeing a nearly eight-fold jump since Monday (March 2), raising the spectre of community transmission of the virus, although all the patients who have tested positive so far either have a history of travel to virus-hit countries such as China, Italy and Iran, or were in contact with someone who got infected while travelling to these countries.
Authorities across the country have launched contact-tracing operations to contain the virus’s spread. Till Thursday, the Union health ministry said nearly 30,000 people were under close observation for symptoms of the illness. The government has not updated this figure since then, though a lot more people are expected to be in the net by now.
In Kerala, three of the infected family from Pathnamthitta district – a couple in their fifties and their 24-year-old son – returned from the Italian city of Venice to Kochi via Doha last week, state health minister KK Shailaja said on Sunday. The remaining two are their relativeswho contracted the virus from them.
The minister said that the couple and their son evaded health screening at the Kochi airport, and had to be forced into isolation wards at the Pathnamthitta General Hospital after they initially refused to cooperate with authorities. The incident also prompted the state health department to warn people that the failure to inform authorities about travel history and symptoms was considered a crime, while the state police separately said it was “illegal and punishable” to hide such information.
The minister said that all the passengers who travelled with the infected family in the Venice-Doha Qatar Airlines QR 126 flight on February 29, and the Qatar Airlines flight QR514 from Doha to Kochi (arrival March 1, 8.20am) should get in touch with health authorities.
Two other elderly family members of the five infected patients showed symptoms of the disease, and have been shifted to the Kottayam Medical College hospital as a precaution, Shailaja said. Older people and those with pre-existing health conditions are more at risk of developing serious illness from the virus. Kerala has also been put on high alert after the disease resurfaced in the state on Sunday, just a fortnight after three students, who had returned to India from China’s Wuhan, were discharged following a full recovery.
In Delhi, a woman who was in contact with an infected patient, a Paytm employee, and a 38-year-old woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra tested positive for Covid-19 in preliminary tests, according to state health officials. Besides these, five more people are believed to have contracted the virus in preliminary tests – two each in Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab, and another in Agra.
Meanwhile, the central and the state governments have introduced precautionary measures and cancelled official events ahead of Holi to contain the spread of the virus as more suspected cases were reported on Sunday.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday urged people to remain calm and said public transport, including buses and Metro trains, will be disinfected regularly. Addressing a press conference, he also appealed people to inform the government if anyone in their neighbourhood had returned from foreign countries in the last two weeks.
Following Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh became the second state to temporarily suspend issuing Protected Area Permits (PAPs) to foreigners, it said in a government order on Sunday.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar, too, said that efforts were underway for the return of Indian pilgrims stranded in Iran’s Qom. “This is top priority and Indian Embassy in Iran is fully engaged on this,” he tweeted on Sunday. His statement comes a day after a special flight from Iran brought swab samples of 110 Indians, which are currently being checked for the disease. New Delhi has said it will evacuate the Indians who test negative for Covid-19.
While the coronavirus outbreak appears to have peaked in China, infections in countries across the world are surging, with Italy (366 deaths), Iran (194) and South Korea (50) emerging as new breeding grounds.
