Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, has issued a suomoto statement on 10th February in the Lok Sabha on the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus Disease in China and some other countries, regarding successive actions taken by the Government of India.

Coronaviruses are a large group of viruses that cause illness in humans and animals and the spread between people has been seen with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2014.

China has reported an outbreak of Novel Coronavirus on December 31, 2019. This outbreak was initially observed in a seafood market in Wuhan city in Hubei Province of China in early December, 2019 and in a very short duration has spread to all the other provinces of China. A total of 37198 confirmed cases and 811 deaths have been reported in China as on 9th February 2020. Also, a total of 354 confirmed cases have been reported from 27 other countries apart from China.

On 30th January 2020, the World Health Organization has declared this outbreak as a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” (PHEIC).

Various epidemiological parameters such as incubation period, mode of transmission, subclinical infection, period of virus shedding etc. are still being researched. If a person is exposed to the infection, then it takes almost two weeks to develop the illness. The main symptoms of novel Coronavirus disease are fever, cough, and difficulty in breathing with radiological evidence suggestive of pneumonia. In 10% to 20% of cases, the disease might become severe requiring ventilator support. The fatality of this infection is around 2%.

Human to human transmission has been observed in cases of Novel Coronavirus as it spreads through dropletsof infected persons having close contact. All suspected or probable cases of nCoVare treated in isolation with barrier nursing and universal precautions are taken to prevent the further spread of disease.

In India, three positive cases are reported so far from Kerala. These cases have travel history from Wuhan, China and these patients are isolated and reported to be clinically stable.

The Government of India has introduced a series of action to prevent entry of the disease and to contain it and the Minister is reviewing the situation daily.

A Group of Ministers consisting of Minister of External Affairs, Minister of Civil Aviation and Minister of State for Home Affairs, Minister of State for Shipping and Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare chaired by Dr Harsha Vardhan has been constituted to monitor and observe the situation. The Cabinet Secretary is taking daily 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 health ministry is reviewing the progressing scenario and video conferences are being done with States every other day.

First Advisory was issued on January 17, 2020 and as the situation is changing as travel advisories are getting revised. At present,

• Existing visas (including eVisa already issued) are no longer valid for any foreign national who are travelling from China.
• People who have convincing reasons to visit India are instructed to contact the Indian embassy in Beijing or Consulate in Shanghai or Guangzhou.
• People have been advised to refrain from travel to China in an earlier advisory. People traveling to China will be quarantined on return.

Screening of passengers was initiated in 12 major seaports and all minor ports in the country to identify passengers & crew coming from China and to isolate them if found symptomatic.

In coordinated operation with Ministry of Civil Aviation, Air India, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, two Special Air India flights were operated between Delhi and Wuhan on 31st January and 1st February 2020 and brought back a total of 654 passengers that included 647 Indian citizens and 7 Maldivian nationals.

Dr Harsh Vardhan had thanked Air India, its crew and the team of doctors and paramedical staff who executed this challenging operation. After evacuation, these people are currently undergoing quarantine at special facilities created by the Indian Army in Manesar and by the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in Chawla Camp.

The Indian Embassy and Consulates are in regular contact with the Indian Community in other parts of China and is also keeping a track of their well-being. Regular surveillance has been started across the country for all cases having travel history from China and for people who had contact with such persons and are suffering from fever, cough or breathlessness.

Adequate amount of isolation beds have been made available in the tertiary facilities across the country to manage any outbreak. 369 symptomatic travelers have been referred to isolation facility and are continuously being monitored. The Ministry has also issued guidelines to support states on surveillance and contact tracing, surveillance at points of entry, laboratory samples collection, packaging and transport, clinical management protocol and infection prevention and control in healthcare facilities.

To safeguard availability of critical items like Personal Protective Equipments (PPE) & N95 masks, exports of these were also prohibited by the Director General of Foreign Trade. A buffer stock of personal protective equipment’s & N95 masks is also maintained by states and the Union Government.

National Institute of Virology, Pune is the nodal Laboratory and as a part of ICMR’s preparation for emerging/ re-emerging infectious disease, NIV, Pune has established capacity for molecular diagnosis of nCoV. Also, next generation sequencing is established and testing of clinical samples has been initiated in 11 other laboratories. Till now, 1510 samples have been tested and 1507 samples were found negative, 3 samples were found positive and 27 samples are still under process.

Risk communication material has also been prepared and is widely distributed in regional languages throughout states. Also, awareness in community is safeguarded through technical briefings by experts via radio and television. Daily Press briefing is being held by the Ministry of Health and Information and is shared through social media. A 24×7 Control Room is also operational (011-23978046).

The Government of India is in regular contact with WHO headquarters, regional office and country office for any updates on progressing scenario. The government has provided support to other countries in managing the challenges caused due to the nCOV disease. ICMR has also offered to do testing of samples for other South East Asian Region countries. Testing of samples from Maldives has already in process. A request from Afghanistan for samples testing has also been agreed. The Government of India have agreed to provide technical assistance to Bhutan in managing this infectious disease and also screening of passengers.Thus, it is taking all the necessary steps to avoid the spread of the novel Coronavirus and to prevent it.

Source: Citizen Matters