NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (March 7, 2020) reviewed the steps taken by the government and concerned ministries to prevent Coronavirus from further spreading across the country. At a meeting with Health Ministry officials, the PM asked them to identify sufficient locations for quarantine and also for critical care provisioning in case of the disease spreads further.
The Prime Minister also directed them to identify best practices for COVID-19 management from across the world.
The crucial meeting was attended by Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Cabinet Secretary, Rajiv Gauba; Member of Niti Aayog, Vinod K Paul, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat among others.
Secretaries of Health, Pharma, Civil Aviation, External Affairs, Health Research, Home, Shipping, NDMA and other officials were also present during the meeting.
After reviewing the situation, the PM said that all departments and concerned ministries should work in convergence and action shall be initiated for creating awareness in the community about the disease and the precautions to be taken.
The PM also complimented all departments for the work taken up so far and mentioned that India has to be prepared in its response as per the evolving scenario.
He said that people should be advised to avoid mass gatherings as far as possible and be made aware of the Dos and Don`ts. During the meeting, Secretary, Health and Family Welfare made a presentation on the current scenario and action taken by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and other supporting ministries with respect to preparedness and response to COVID-19.
While addressing the media, Sanjeeva Kumar, Special Secretary (Health), said, "52 laboratories are now operational across the country for testing COVID-19 virus. Additional 57 laboratories have been provided with Viral Transport Media and swabs for sample collection."
"Between yesterday morning and today, 73,766 passengers from 573 flights have undergone screening at airports. This brings the total number of passengers screened to 7,26,122 from 7,108 flights," Kumar said.
Meanwhile, three more cases of coronavirus were found to be positive on Saturday - two in Ladakh and 1 in Tamil Nadu - taking the total count in India to 34. This was confirmed by the Union Health Ministry.
The positive cases include two from Ladakh with travel history to Iran and one from Tamil Nadu with travel history to Oman. All the cases are stable.
Of the total 34 of cases reported from India so far, three patients have been discharged already which means that the number of active cases is 31. Of these, 16 are Italian and 15 are Indian citizens.
With regard to the two American nationals who were found positive in Bhutan with a travel history of various places in India, more than 150 contacts have been put under IDSP surveillance by the government agencies.
So far, 34 positive cases of coronavirus have been reported in India.
