The Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan addressed the media on the two new confirmed cases of coronavirus in New Delhi and Telangana, and stated that contact tracing will be undertaken in an effort to curb the spread of the disease.
Noting that the person from New Delhi had recently traveled from Italy and the person from Telangana had recently traveled via Dubai, officials will begin contact tracing of those who were on the same flights.
“We are currently in the process of informing the family and coworkers of the two patients and further investigations will be done as deemed necessary,” the health minister told the media on Monday. He also stated that screening of passengers from 12 countries would take place in view of the new positive cases.
“We advise Indians to avoid non-essential travel to China, Iran, Korea, Singapore, and Italy. Screening of passengers being conducted at 21 airports, 12 major seaports, and 65 minor seaports. 5,57,431 passengers have been screened so far at airports and 12,431 passengers have been screened on minor and major seaports,” he said.
The coronavirus outbreak began in China’s Wuhan city in early December 2019. A group of people fell ill with pneumonia-like symptoms. A new strain of the coronavirus, which also caused the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), was found to be the cause of the outbreak.
Over 80,000 people have been infected globally with the death toll rising to 3,000 from the disease over the weekend. There is no cure or vaccine for the virus and treatment has largely been based on controlling symptoms.
Earlier, there were three positive cases reported from Kerala. The three individuals made a full recovery and were discharged from the hospital.