Surge in cases, all inbound flyers put on coronavirus watch

The number of people with the coronavirus disease in India rose sharply to 29 and additional schools and offices were closed in several cities on Wednesday.

The number of people with the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in India rose sharply to 29 and additional schools and offices were closed in several cities on Wednesday as authorities found more people with signs of an infection, deepening the potential for the virus to spread further in what could turn into a health emergency for the country.

A security personnel is seen wearing a protective mask following positive cases of coronavirus in the country, at Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India, on Wednesday, March 4, 2020.(Photo: Deepak Gupta / Hindustan Times)

The infections confirmed on Wednesday include a 26-year-old man who works for Paytm in Gurugram and had been to Italy – one of the hotbeds of the outbreak. The rest were people who had been in close contact with the three patients confirmed to have been infected by the novel coronavirus earlier this week.

In Hyderabad, where one Covid-19 case was confirmed on Monday, authorities said two more people were found positive for coronavirus in preliminary testing. Their status will be confirmed by the National institute of Virology, Pune, potentially taking total for people infected in India to 31.

With all of the active cases linked to people who arrived either from Dubai or Italian cities, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan announced on Wednesday it was expanding its screening of passengers at airports to all inbound international flights.

In the less than three months since it started spreading from China, the novel coronavirus — technically known as the SARS-Cov-2 — has sickened at least 94,000 people, of which around 3,200 have died. By Wednesday, the pathogen spread to nearly 80 countries — with South Korea, Iran and Italy now accounting for the maximum number of new cases outside of China.

The rate of spread and the severity of the disease — the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday it appears to kill 3.4 out of every 100 people it sickens — poses a challenge for a dense country like India.

“Containment of Covid-19 must remain the top priority, but in the event of community transmission, the focus would have to shift towards protecting the most vulnerable population and minimising both the health and social impact of the outbreak,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director, South-east Asia Region, of which India is a part.

Community transmission means infections within a population are not imported from another virus-hit area. To stem such spread, Indian health officials have activated a labyrinthine “contact-tracing” operation, with more than 300,000 ground-level workers at hand to track down new infections.

On Wednesday, authorities in states such as Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh said hundreds have been put under observation or are being reached after they came in close contact with people who are confirmed patients.

“Our team will be collecting names and addresses of 150-200 employees working in the Gurugram office to conduct surveillance. The team will locate the employees for examination and immediate testing if required,” said Rajiv Arora, Haryana health department’s additional chief secretary, while speaking about the 26-year-old patient who works in Paytm’s Gurugram office, whose infection was confirmed on Wednesday.

Paytm said it was closing its offices temporarily. “We have also advised all our colleagues to work from home for a couple of days while we get our offices sanitized,” a spokesperson said in a statement, adding that daily operations and services would not be impacted.

Paytm has six offices around New Delhi, employing at least 3,000 people.

Several schools in the National Capital Region said they were fumigating and sanitising their premises. Three schools in Delhi and its adjoining suburbs of Noida announced holidays for students and staff as a precautionary measure to prevent spread of the disease, while two schools advanced their spring break and others sent out advisories to parents, PTI reported.

The outbreak also prompted authorities and political leaders to cancel several functions as they sought to avoid contact between large groups of people.

“Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the (virus) spread,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet on Wednesday. “Hence, this year I have decided not to participate.”

In the national capital, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) — which ferries at least two million people across the city every day on an average — said it would increase the frequency of cleaning on its premises.

Outside India, Italy — where the number of dead crossed 100 on Wednesday — announced it will shut schools and colleges for two weeks. The outbreak also disrupted Islamic worship in the Middle East as Saudi Arabia banned its citizens and other residents of the kingdom from performing the pilgrimage in Mecca, while Iran cancelled Friday prayers in major cities.