On Thursday, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said that one of the three medical students, who had tested positive for novel coronavirus infection and were treated at a hospital in Kerala, has been discharged after recovery. The other two student’s subsequent tests showed significant reduction in "viral load" of the virus. They are waiting for confirmatory results before discharging them. All of them are stable and recovering.

A high-level Group of Ministers, organized on the directions of the prime minister, held its second meeting to review the present status and actions for prevention and management of the novel coronavirus, named COVID-19. Vardhan said a total of 2,51,447 persons travelling in 2,315 flights have been screened till now. Moreover, 15,991 people across the country have been kept on community surveillance and out of them, 497 had been identified as symptomatic cases and isolated whereas 41 were hospitalized.

The minister had also confirmed that India had evacuated 645 people, which includes seven Maldivians from Chinas Wuhan city and quarantined them in two special camps. They are kept under observation for a period of two weeks and would be discharged after tested negative for the virus.

India has also extended support to Maldives in testing samples and to Bhutan in managing COVID-19. India has also decided to support Afghanistan in testing samples and has extended help to China by transporting essential items for combating COVID 2019 as per a commitment made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Passengers who are arriving from Thailand and Singapore, besides China and Hong Kong, are also being screened for possible exposure to the virus at 21 identified airports in the country. Also, screening is done at major seaports and border crossings.

On Thursday, the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak has increase to 1,310 in China while the number of those affected by the deadly virus has risen to 48,206.

Source: ET Healthworld