New Delhi, March 5 (IANS): With one new confirmed case of novel coronavirus in Ghaziabad, the total number of positive cases of Covid-19 have reached 30, out of which 3 cases are in Delhi-NCR.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, on Thursday confirmed that the total number of positive cases of COVID-19 are now 30.
The reported cases include the previous three cases from Kerala, who have now cured and discharged from the hospital. In addition,there are three positive cases from Delhi-NCR, of which two have travel history from Italy, and one has travel history of Iran. Six patients in Agra contacted the infection from the first Delhi patient allegedly during a birthday party.
One confirmed case of the disease has been reported in Telangana. The infected person had visited Dubai where he picked up the infection from a person from Singapore.
Besides these cases, 16 Italian tourists and their driver who is an Indian and was with the Italian tourist group have been confirmed with the disease.
The earlier two suspected cases of Telangana have tested negative at National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune.
The ministry also said that both the Italian and Indian patients are stable and being closely monitored.
Amid rise in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in India, the Union Health Ministry asked states on Thursday to set up rapid response teams at district, block and village levels stating that cases of community transmission of the disease have been observed.
This is a cluster containment approach. Rapid response teams, which would include health officials, will promptly check and sensitise every household within 3 km-radius of the house of an infected person and also those who have come in contact with the affected, to prevent community spread of the virus, a health ministry official explained.
"These health officials will urge those having symptoms of cough, fever and breathing difficulty to get themselves tested and stay home quarantined, besides sensitising them to stay alert and look for symptoms and report if any," the official said.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan held a meeting with the private hospitals in Delhi regarding their preparedness to deal with coronavirus. He had met Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain and civic body officials on Wednesday and urged them to augment facilities of isolation wards in city hospitals if more cases of coronavirus get recorded.