-
- Published: March 9, 2020 16:06
New Delhi: Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Monday said that close to 9 lakh passengers coming from other countries have been screened in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak.
“On 18 January we started universal screening on 7 airports and now 30 airports have been put under screening. All passengers coming from other countries are being screened on airports. So far, 8,74,708 passengers have been screened,” Vardhan told reporters at a press conference here.
“We have discussed with Delhi Government to prepare for isolation wards, quarantine facilities, availability of doctors, contact tracing and other precautions, if the cases increase,” he added.
Union Health Min Dr Harsh Vardhan: We have sent our scientists & labs to Iran, when we will get custom clearance then they will start working. Right now we are bringing samples from there & when the report of that sample will come negative, we will bring them back. #Coronavirus pic.twitter.com/xUOjss15ji
— ANI (@ANI) March 9, 2020
Four new cases of COVID-19 have been reported since Sunday – one each from Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu.
According to official estimates, till Monday 43 samples have tested positive out of the 3,003 samples tested for COVID-19 with 2,694 samples have returned negative results. 177 of them have been hospitalised and 33,599 passengers are under observation. 21,867 passengers have completed their observation period.
Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan: On 18 January we started universal screening on 7 airports and now 30 airports have been put under screening. All passengers coming from other countries are being screened on the airports. So far, 8,74,708 passengers screened. #Coronavirus https://t.co/dt3g4AcTUj pic.twitter.com/TiUm5vfpa7
— ANI (@ANI) March 9, 2020
As many as 52 laboratories are now operational across the country for testing the COVID-19 virus. An additional 57 laboratories have been provided with Viral Transport Media and swabs for sample collection.
In order to spread awareness, a special COVID-19 mobile phone caller tune was launched by all telecom operators with basic infection prevention messages played when a caller dials-out. Over 117.2 crore subscribers of BSNL, MTNL Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone-Idea are being progressively reached out to through SMSs and Call Backs. (ANI)