Is India ready for Coronavirus?

New Delhi, March 05: India, taking the novel coronavirus threat seriously is leading in efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus. "Prime Minister himself is monitoring the situation on day to day basis. The Government is making all efforts to counter the threat from Coronavirus", asserted Minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday.

 

"Principal Secretary to Prime Minister and the Cabinet Secretary are holding meetings with the Chief Secretaries and other concerned officials of all the State through video conferencing on day to day basis. Health Ministry is also maintaining a close watch on the situation, especially in setting up of Isolation Wards across the country and screening of the people coming to India from abroad", he added.

 

 

Javadekar also informed that passengers are being screened at all the 21 international airports and so far six lakh visitors have been screened. About one million people have been screened in the border areas adjoining Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. "Villages in border areas adjoining neighboring countries are also being taken care of", he noted.

 

Apart from the one Virology Lab in the country at Pune, the Centre has set up 15 new Virology Labs and 19 more will be set up within one week across the country. "Travel advisories have also been issued. Besides, a big awareness campaign has been launched across the country especially in schools, colleges and elsewhere and people are being made aware about the “Do’s and Don’ts” to prevent possible infection", he said.

India is well prepared to prevent the spread of COVID19. MHA's Vasudha Gupta in a tweet noted that all land ports under the Ministry have fully equipped medical teams that are present across states to screen all incoming passengers from neighboring countries. "Medical check-up is ongoing at Dera Baba Nanak and Attari and full check up and scanning is being undertaken at all landports and status report is being submitted on a daily basis", she added.

 

There is no need to panic about the novel coronavirus. People need to maintain respiratory etiquettes to stay away from the infection. The common symptoms of coronavirus are mild to moderate fever, sore throat, bodyache, cold and flu. In case of infection, most of the people have mild upper respiratory infection and it is self limiting. Experts have advised people to follow basic protective measures so that they can keep themselves away from the Novel Coronavirus.