A man pedals to work wearing a mask in Prayagraj, Thursday
Claiming that the situation arising out of seven coronavirus cases in the state is under control, the UP government on Thursday said its focus has now shifted from prevention of the disease to containment of the virus, and urged people not to panic.
Addressing mediapersons here, Minister for Medical, Health and Family Welfare, Jai Pratap Singh, said that so far, 175 people have been tested for novel coronavirus in the state with 157 of them showing no sign of infection. Among the rest 18, seven have tested positive, while the initial test report of 11 is awaited, the minister said, referring to the six positive cases from Agra and the latest one positive case from Ghaziabad. All the seven have been admitted to nodal hospitals in Delhi.
Speaking about the preparations to combat any outbreak of COVID-19, the minister said that 820 beds have been kept in isolation in district hospitals for the treatment of patients. “The situation is under control. As many as 820 isolation beds have been prepared at various hospitals. Seven medical colleges have been alerted,” he said.
Mithiliesh Chaturvedi, Director, Communicable Disease, said that fresh reports have confirmed that the virus has an average spread rate of 2.3 persons and mortality rate has dropped to 0.7 per cent.
“So far, our focus was on prevention, but now we have shifted our focus on containment plan. Now, we want to break the transmission to make sure the virus does not spread. For example, in Agra, we had 24-hour surveillance, and found 66 people who possibly came in contact with the Italian citizens who tested positive. One of them was a student at St Peters School, so we took samples from the school too. We are also focusing on community awareness,” said Chaturvedi.
“We should not panic. As per the WHO-China Joint Mission Commission report, the infection rate of coronavirus is less that of swine flu, chickenpox or measles. The infection rate for coronavirus is just 2.3 persons. Earlier, the mortality rate was around 2.1 per cent, but fresh reports have confirmed that from February 1, the mortality rate has reduced to 0.7 per cent,” Chaturvedi said.
“Another important thing is that the virus is not vector-borne, not airborne, but spread only through droplets,” Chaturvedi said, adding that the three things people need to follow are handwash protocol, respiratory etiquette and social spacing.
Meanwhile, the state government said that it has formed a high-power committee at the state level along with a district-level committee of officials in each district.
“Around 800 health officials in the state have been confirmed for identification, sample collection and transportation of samples. The set-up for testing is available at KGMU, Lucknow; NCDC, Delhi and NIV, Pune. All six airports in the state — Lucknow, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Kanpur, Agra and Gorakhpur — have a 24-hour ambulance service available and check-posts have been set up at all seven districts on the border with Nepal. Important logistics like masks, PPE kits etc have been made available at all districts,” a statement issued by the government said.
In Lucknow, KGMU Vice-Chancellor MLB Bhatt said that they have reserved 12 isolation beds for possible patients of coronavirus, and they could expand facilities, if needed. At present, one person has been kept in the hospital for monitoring.
On Thursday, 31 samples were taken for test at KGMU, of which 28 were found negative. The report of the rest three are awaited, said Dr Amita Jain, Head, Microbiology Department, KGMU.
Meanwhile, UP Directorate of Health Services in its daily bulletin said that 2812 travellers from coronavirus-affected countries have been identified and tracked, and all have been placed under surveillance. “A total of 693 travellers are in fine health, of which 690 are under home isolation, three are symptomatic and admitted to hospitals,” it said.
According to the Directorate, five contacts of the Ghaziabad traveller, who is the latest positive case, are under home quarantine.