The total number of people infected by coronavirus in India has gone up to 29, after a Paytm employee in Gurugram tested positive for Covid-19. Infection was detected in 13 Italian nationals who were part of a travel group to Jaipur. Earlier this week, two more people had tested positive, one from New Delhi, and the other a Bengaluru techie in Hyderabad, Telangana.
What is the Govt. of India Doing?
- Passengers from 12 countries are being screened, including those from Kathmandu, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia.
- India has imposed “some restrictions” on the export of certain medical equipment to China given their shortage of supply in the country, and the precautions taken are in accordance with World Health Organization’s (WHO) advisory for the coronavirus outbreak.
- India also restricted the export of about 26 Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and formulations including antibiotics, vitamins and hormones like Paracetamol, Tinidazole, Metronidaxole, Vitamins B1, B6, B12, hormone progesterone, with immediate effect.
- Telangana has allocated Rs 100 crore for preventing and containing a possible outbreak. Private hospitals have been given a directive not to delay reporting cases. Three designated hospitals for isolating patients have been set up.
- Sixteen Indians have tested positive for coronavirus test aboard the cruise liner Diamond Princess. The last batch of healthy passengers disembarked and returned to India after the quarantine period ended. A total of 138 Indians, including 132 crew and 6 passengers, were among the 3,711 people on board the ship.
- The govt has suspended all regular visas/e-visas granted on or before March 3 to nationals of Italy, Iran, South Korea, Japan who have not yet entered India.
- Those requiring to travel to India due to compelling reasons, may seek fresh visa from nearest Indian Embassy/Consulate, according to a release.
- The advisory also suspended visa on arrival (VoA) issued by March 3 to Japan and South Korea nationals who have not yet entered India.
- India has also issued a fresh travel advisory to avoid non-essential travel to Korea, Iran and Italy, in addition to China.
- People coming from Republic of Korea, Iran and Italy or having such travel history since 10 February may be quarantined for 14 days on arrival to India, along with anyone with a history of travel to China since January 15, 2020.
- India has also advised citizens to avoid all non-essential travel to Singapore.
Government of India issued many advisories, including travel advisory, clinical management, surveillance for human infection, guidelines for sample collection, guidelines for prevention, etc. Following are the links from the Government of India for you.
COVID-19 Guidelines by Government of India
- Updated Travel Advisory for travellers visiting China (197.27 KB)
https://www.mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/Travel%20advisory%20revised.pdf - Discharge policy for suspect or confirmed novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) cases (354.71 KB)
https://www.mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/Corona%20Discharge-Policy.pdf - Guidelines on Clinical management of severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) in suspect/confirmed novel Coronavirus (nCoV) cases (174.06 KB)
https://www.mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/Guidelines%20on%20Clinical%20management%20of%20severe%20acute%20respiratory%20illness.pdf - Guidance on Surveillance for human infection with 2019-nCoV (399.24 KB)
https://www.mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/Guidance%20document%20-%202019-nCoV.pdf - Guidelines for Infection Prevention and Control in Healthcare Facilities (1.83 MB)
https://www.mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/National%20Guidelines%20for%20IPC%20in%20HCF%20-%20final%281%29.pdf - Guidance for sample Collection, Packaging and Transportation for Novel Coronavirus (853.42 KB)
https://www.mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/5Sample%20collection_packaging%20%202019-nCoV.pdf
