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Coronavirus cases in India jump to 206, Gujarat latest to report people with Covid-19
About 7,000 people have been identified in India, and are under observation, as part of contact tracing of all the positive cases. And close to 75,000 people are under community surveillance as part of integrated disease surveillance programme (IDSP) surveillance efforts.
The number of coronavirus posiitve cases in India rose to 206 on Friday.
Twenty states and Union territories are now affected in India by Covid-19, the Union health ministry said. Maharashtra and Kerala are the worst affected states with 47 and 28 cases reported so far.
“The numbers are not that high as of now and there is no evidence of community transmission found yet. But we are prepared and reviewing our strategy each day as it is an evolving situation,” a senior health ministry official said.
Four people have succumbed to the fast-spreading respiratory illness across the country, according to Union health ministry data.
Gujarat is the latest state to have reported the disease after two people tested positive for coronavirus in the last 24 hours.
Also read: Kerala government announces Rs 20,000 crore package to tackle coronavirus outbreak
Telangana has reported the maximum or 10 novel coronavirus cases among the new infections. The rest of the positive cases are from Delhi at five, Union Territory of Ladakh and Gujarat at two each and one each from Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
The first Covid-19 case was reported in India on January 30, when the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared the disease as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
About 7,000 people have been identified in India, and are under observation, as part of contact tracing of all the positive cases. And close to 75,000 people are under community surveillance as part of integrated disease surveillance programme (IDSP) surveillance efforts.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), country’s top biomedical research organisation that is supervising coronavirus testing, has tested about 14,500 samples in their various viral research and diagnostic laboratories across India since January.
Patients are also making recovery and being discharged on a regular basis; so far 20 people, who had earlier tested positive for the disease, have made full recovery and have been discharged from hospital after their two consecutive test results returned negative within a span of 24 hours.
There is no evidence of Covid-19 recurrence among any of the 14 discharged patients.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked citizens to observe a one-day voluntary Janta curfew on March 22 to prevent community transmission of the disease and avoid visiting hospitals for general health check-ups and defer elective surgeries to relieve the medical staff from pressure.
The government has instructed states to enforce a work-from-home protocol for all private sector employees, except essential services, as part of a raft of measures aimed at staving off the coronavirus epidemic that has claimed four lives in the country.
The Centre has also banned all international commercial flights from landing in India for a week starting March 22. It has also advised children below 10 and citizens above 65, except government servants, medical professionals and public representatives, to stay at home.
The virus, thought to have originated from wildlife in mainland China late last year, has jumped to 172 other nations and territories with more than 20,000 new cases reported in the past 24 hours in a new daily record.
Also read: How people across the world are tackling the crisis
According to officials, the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy rose in the last 24 hours by 427 to 3405, overtaking the total number of deaths so far registered in China.
Some 3245 people have died in China since the virus first emerged there.
