People wear safety masks as a precautionary measure after the ‘Nipah’ virus outbreak at Kozhikode Medical College in Kerala.
Amid reports of 17 deaths caused by the dreadful Nipah virus in Kerala, Union Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey on Saturday said that the disease has been contained and that no fresh cases were reported thereafter.
“The virus has been stalled. There has been no cases of Nipah reported from anywhere in the country. This is a good sign. Nipah is no epidemic. There is nothing to be scared of,” Choubey told PTI.
On reports of several people returning from Kerala to West Bengal in the wake of the virus scare, the minister said there is no need to run away from the state anymore. “Our entire team is there in the place where the virus has been reported. The virus has been contained in the concerned areas. There is no need to run away from anywhere,” he said.
The minister, who was in Kolkata for official meetings, said the kin in Kerala who lost their lives due to the disease were treated in isolation. “We have treated the family of those persons who were affected and died because of the Nipah virus. They were kept in isolation in Pune’s National Institute of Virology,” he said.
“As per the latest report of the Central High-Level Team, Nipah Virus Disease is not a major outbreak and only local occurrence limited to two districts Kozhikode and Malappuram in Kerala,” an advisory issued by the National Centre for Disease Control said.
“There is no need for the general public to be apprehensive about the safety of individuals and their family members. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is closely monitoring the situation,” the department under the Health Ministry added.