A thermal screeening device checks passengers arriving in India from China including Hong Kong in view of outbreak of Novel coronavirus (CoV) in China, at an airport in Kolkata. (Image: PTI)
Hours after the confirmation of the third coronavirus case from the state, where over 2, 18 People are under watch at houses and hospitals, Health Minister KK Shailaja said on the advise of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan it has been decided to declare the epidemic as a “state calamity”. The move was to take all necessary steps to ensure that the outbreak is effectively controlled, she said. Meanwhile, suspected cases continue to be reported in other states. In Rajasthan, blood samples of four suspected coronavirus patients were sent to Jaipur’s SMS Medical College for testing, while in Uttarakhand, a China-returned student was admitted to AIIMS, Rishikesh. A man has also been kept under watch in Maharashtra’s Sangli district, taking the number of such people to six in the state.
Meanwhile in China, the National Health Commission, in its daily update, said there had been 64 new deaths from the virus – all in hardest-hit Hubei province, bringing the national toll to 823.
As it races to try to contain the spread of the virus, China’s elite Politburo Standing Committee called for improvements to the “national emergency management system” following “shortcoming and difficulties exposed in the response to the epidemic,” according to the official Xinhua news agency .
“It is necessary to strengthen market supervision, resolutely ban and severely crack down on illegal wildlife markets and trade,” the Politburo said in a meeting on Monday, Xinhua reported. The government also said it “urgently” needed protective medical equipment such as surgical masks, protective suits, and safety goggles as it battles to control the outbreak.
Authorities in provinces that are home to more than million people – including Guangdong, the country most populous in south China with million people – have ordered everyone to wear masks in public .
But factories capable of producing around 64 million masks a day are only operating at – 70 percent of capacity, industry department spokesman Tian Yulong said, adding that supply and demand remained in “tight equilibrium” as a result of the Lunar New Year break.
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