Indian nationals who were airlifted from coronavirus-hit Wuhan city of China’s Hubei undergo screening inside a quarantine facility set up in New Delhi. (PTI Photo/File)
The Punjab government on Wednesday issued instructions to cancel the holidays/leaves of all key staff engaged in the reporting and management for COVID-19 (official name for the disease caused by the coronavirus).
In a press communiqué, Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said staff working on surveillance of coronavirus, reporting, tracing and management would only be granted leave after getting sanction from the Directorate Health Services so that screening as well as testing process of the suspected passengers are not affected. The State Surveillance Unit of Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP) will be monitoring the situation and all surveillance activities in the state for coronavirus, said Sidhu.
The minister said that till date, a total of 22,236 passengers had been screened at the international airports in Amritsar and Mohali. Another 16,549 passengers had been screened at the Attari-Wagah Border, Amritsar, and 5,687 passengers had been screened at Dera Baba Nanak checkpost in Gurdaspur.
Sidhu further said that of the 1,517 passengers who had a travel history of China or transit stay at airports, 35 samples had been were collected for testing and all were reported negative by NIV, Pune. “A total of 1,109 passengers have crossed the observation period of 14 days so far and remaining passengers have been kept under home isolation and observation of the health department,” said Sidhu.
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“To expedite the process of sample testing, the Centre has now made a provision of getting samples tested at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, and one sample each from Jalandhar and Amritsar were sent to AIIMS which have tested negative,” he said. Till date no confirmed case of coronavirus has been reported from the State of Punjab, he added.