Twenty-eight tested positive for COVID-19 in India, says Harsh Vardhan; Delhi-NCR runs out of N95 masks, hand sanitisers

A total of 28 people have been tested positive for COVID-19 in India, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan told reporters on Wednesday. Apart from 16 Italian nationals, their Indian driver, six people in Agra, three people in Kerala and one person each in Delhi and Telangana are among those who are undergoing treatment for the virus. [caption id=“attachment_8117001” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  An Italian group at ITBP’s quarantine facility at Chhawla for preventive isolation. PTI[/caption] The minister added that the three initial cases of coronavirus which were detected in Kerala in February are now cured. 14 the Italian nationals have been sent to the ITBP quarantine facility in Delhi’s Chhawla, which had housed Indians rescued from Wuhan last month. An Italian tourist and his wife found to have been infected with coronavirus have been kept in isolation at Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital in Jaipur. The patients in Agra were infected after coming in contact with a man who was tested positive in Delhi, who has travel history to Italy. Six others, including three children, whose samples were taken in Noida, had also come in contact with the patient during a party thrown by him. They were tested negative for the virus. Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said that the government has earmarked 230 beds in isolation wards being set up at 25 hospitals, as several city schools sent advisories to parents listing precautionary measures. He further said 3.5 lakh N95 masks were being arranged and the government has 8,000 separation kits for staff treating coronavirus patients. Additionally, Vardhan said that India intends to establish a testing laboratory in Iran, where Indian citizens can undergo thorough screening before being brought back to the country. In the wake of a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda said that they will not take part in any Holi celebration programmes this year. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi hit out at Modi, asking him to “quit wasting India’s time playing the clown with your social media accounts, when India is facing an emergency”. He shared a video of the Singaporean prime minister Lee Hsien Loong’s message to the people of his country on how to deal with coronavirus.

Dear @PMOIndia,

Quit wasting India's time playing the clown with your social media accounts, when India is facing an emergency. Focus the attention of every Indian on taking on the Corona virus challenge.

Here's how it's done..#coronavirusindia pic.twitter.com/jLZG5ISjwt

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 3, 2020

The health minister announced that all international passengers will be screened for COVID-19, and not just those belonging to the 12 countries that had been listed in a government advisory earlier. “We had screened about 5,89,000 people at our airports, over 15,000 at minor and major seaports and over 10 lakhs at the border of Nepal till Tuesday,” he said. Currently, Air India has suspended flights to Shanghai and Hong Kong until 30 June, while Vistara Airlines has temporarily reduced flights to and from Bangkok and Singapore. The DGCA on Tuesday asked airlines and airports to take specific measures such as providing protective gears like surgical masks and gloves to ground staff, crew members and passengers and having multiple hand sanitising points at terminals. The aviation regulator stated that airports and airlines must ensure that each aircraft arriving from South Korea, Japan and Italy is subjected to disinfection process before boarding begins for the next flight on the plane. While no cases of coronavirus have been reported in Gujarat yet, 1,582 people who came from foreign countries recently have been screened till now and 25 samples have been collected. No cases have come to light in Maharashtra either, but NCP MP Supriya Sule said 34 people from the state are stranded in Iran amid the virus scare there. The Telangana and Karnataka governments on Tuesday reviewed their coronavirus preparedness, while the Andhra Pradesh government said there was no impact of the deadly virus in the state but the health machinery was on full alert to handle the situation. The Telangana government says it has decided to undertake various measures, including a campaign to promote cleanliness in public transport. Karnataka health minister B Srirumulu has appealed to people not to pay heed to rumours about coronavirus, while the Odisha government has issued dos and don’ts asking people to avoid hugging, shaking hands while greeting and keeping their workplace clean to ward off the virus. A 25-year-old man, who returned to Kerala from Malaysia on Monday, is under observation at the isolation ward of a government medical college hospital in Ernakulam district. Eleven people, including two Italians, one Japanese, one from Hong Kong and seven Indians, were quarantined at Rajasthan University of Health Sciences (RUHS) hospital on Tuesday. The four foreigners have travel history to Japan and countries in southeast Asia that have reported coronavirus cases. Meanwhile, Twitter has asked its employees to work from home while other tech giants like Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Technologies instructed staff to avoid non-essential travel as IT firms put in place measures to safeguard workers against the deadly coronavirus. Intel said one of its employees in Bengaluru “potentially been exposed” to coronavirus and is currently under quarantine. In Noida and Greater Noida, people claimed surgical masks which usually sell for Rs 10 were being sold for Rs 40 or higher, and N95 masks which sell for around Rs 150 were being sold for up to Rs 500, PTI reported. People also complained about shortage of hand-sanitising gel in the market. Gautam Buddh Nagar Chemists Association president Anoop Khanna said the demand shot up around 10 am on Tuesday after news of suspected coronavirus cases in Noida started doing rounds on news and social media. India, which is the largest supplier of generic drugs, has restricted the export of 26 pharmaceutical ingredients and the medicines made from them, including Paracetamol, a common pain reliever. Indian drugmakers rely on China, the source of the virus outbreak, for almost 70 percent of the APIs for their medicines. Industry experts say they are likely to face shortages if the epidemic drags on, Reuters reported. The World Health Organisation warned the protective gear needed to fight the disease was “rapidly depleting”. The prices of surgical masks have increased six-fold, while the cost for ventilators had tripled, he added. In an effort to aid aid fast, effective action against the virus, the World Bank unveiled a $12 billion aid package. More than 3,000 people have died of coronavirus across the world — a majority of them in China. Over 90,000 have been infected. With inputs from agencies