Novel Coronavirus: Centre issues advisory, sets up 24x7 call centre

CORONAVIRUS CONTAGIOUS PNEUMONIA

* China reports 1,287 confirmed cases * 011-23978046 helpline in India * Thermal screening of nCoV at 7 airports — New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad & Kochi

NEW DELHI: Following the outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in China and reports of people contacting the symptoms associated with the virus coming in from Hong Kong, Taiwan, France, and Australia among others, fuel prices also dropped further on Saturday after international crude oil rates fell sharply. The Asian/Oceanian Tokyo-2020 boxing qualifying event, which was cancelled in China following the coronavirus outbreak that has claimed several lives in Wuhan, will now be held in Jordan.

According to WHO “Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARSCoV).

A novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans. Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. Detailed investigations found that SARS-CoV was transmitted from civet cats to humans and MERS-CoV from dromedary camels to humans. Several known coronaviruses are circulating in animals that have not yet infected humans.

The virus, causing an outbreak in China, was identified as a novel Coronavirus.

Chinese Health authorities announced on Saturday that 1,287 confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), including 237 in critical conditions, had been reported in the country by the end of Friday. Chinese authorities have sent 450 military medics in an effort to fight the novel coronavirus outbreak in the hardest-hit city of Wuhan, it was reported on Saturday. Official sources informed that most of the over 500 Indian students studying in China’s Wuhan city universities and medical colleges had left for home for the Chinese New Year holidays.

Meanwhile, the Indian Health Ministry on Saturday issued a travel advisory to those visiting China from India or coming back from there in the wake of the outbreak of the contagious novel coronavirus. The Ministry urged the travellers to cut their further travelling plans in case they felt sick and had fever, cough and cold. It also gave various helpline numbers in case of sickness or help required.

The advisory, posted on the Twitter handle of the Health Ministry, said travellers to China are advised to avoid all “no-essential travel to China” and to “avoid close contact with people showing symptoms of illness such as cough, running nose etc”.

“The travellers to China should follow simple public health measures all the time.” The advisory suggested observing good personal hygiene, practice frequent hand washing with soap. Follow respiratory etiquette — cover your mouth when coughing or sneezing.

The Ministry also urged all travellers to China to monitor their health closely and said “during your stay in China, if you feel sick and have a fever and cough seek medical attention immediately. Report to Indian Embassy in China (+8618612083629 and +8618612083617)”

The advisory said that if a traveller was feeling sick on the flight while coming back to India they must “inform the airlines crew about the illness”. It also asked the traveller to inform the airline crew about illness.

“If you feel sick within the span of one month after return from China immediately call the helpline (011-23978046) and follow the direction issued,” the notification read. “The 24x7 Call Centre (+91-11-23978046) will also monitor the list of contacts furnished by Ministry of External Affairs; provide details of district and State surveillance officers to those who seek them; and in case of any clinical query, direct the concerned to the relevant Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) officer,” said the Health Ministry.

The advisory stated that one should maintain effective isolation at home and with others in case of symptoms. It asked the people to report the illness to the nearest health facility and also inform the treating doctor regarding their travel history.

According to the notification, a total of 1,287 cases and 41 deaths have been reported so far in 29 provinces of China including districts and cities. In addition to it, 28 cases had been confirmed outside China mainland that constituted 5 cases in Hong Kong, 2 cases in Macao, Vietnam and France, 3 cases in Taiwan, 4 cases in Thailand out of which, two were cured. One out of two cases in Japan had also been cured, the Ministry said. There had been two cases in South Korea as well as in the US, 3 cases in Singapore and one in Nepal.

“The mode of transmission is yet unclear but the evidence points to human-to-human transmission occurring between close contacts through respiratory route,” said the Ministry, adding “the clinical signs and symptoms are mainly fever with a few patients having difficulty in breathing”.

Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan on Saturday said that Central teams have been sent to conduct thermal screening of Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) at seven designated airports — New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kochi.

Although, no nCoV cases have been detected in the country so far, Government is reviewing and monitoring the preparedness on a daily basis.

According to the Health Ministry, these teams will consist of a public health expert, a clinician and a microbiologist. They are scheduled to reach their respective destination on Sunday.

“They (teams) shall review the end-to-end preparedness for management and control of nCoV in the States, including that at the airports, for thermal screening and transferring of patients to hospitals for isolation, and shall also visit the tertiary hospitals attached to the airports for reviewing the isolation wards and availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and masks etc”, said the Health Ministry in a statement.

The teams will coordinate with the State Health secretaries to explore all avenues to strengthen States’ preparedness, and also review the adherence to mandatory guidelines connected with infection control and surveillance.

According to the Union Minister, out of 11 persons under observation, four passengers have been confirmed to be negative for nCoV by the ICMR-NIV Pune lab. He has sought personal intervention from various Chief Ministers to review their respective State preparedness for control and management of nCoV.

“The situation is being closely monitored at the highest level for adequate preparedness. All the officials of my Ministry, concerned departments and States/UTs have been put on high alert for Novel Coronavirus. We are taking all required possible precautions to manage all possible scenarios”, said Harsh Vardhan.

The Centre is also closely monitoring all passengers arriving from China and Hong Kong across the seven international airports. Travel advisory/signages have been extended to 12 more airports in additionally.

“Advisory has also been issued to all States/UTs for Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) surveillance to pick up any travel related case reported in the community and follow up contacts of suspect/confirmed cases”, added the statement from the ministry.

Also, guidelines have been issued for Surveillance and Contact Tracing; Infection Control; Lab Sample Testing and Clinical Care.

The Minister added that National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune is fully geared up to test samples of nCoV along with 10 other laboratories under Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)’s Viral Research and Diagnostics Laboratories (VRDL) network are also equipped to test such samples, if a need arises.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has said there is no need to panic or fear about the novel Coronavirus (nCoV) disease for the people in India. AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria said: “We still need to be vigilant because we don’t want it to spread rapidly here. The important issue here is to have good control to prevent the infection from spreading.”

“This is a novel virus. It means that this is a new virus to which humans have no exposure to, and therefore they have no immunity to it. If one has infection, the body is not having an immune response to it, thus, that person has a chance of getting the infection and, those who are vulnerable, of getting severe infection which can lead to hospitalisation,” he said.

“It is a human virus because now it has human-to-human spread but the genetic material of the virus is different because it has a little bit of animal origin. It has mutated and has become a new virus,” he added.

Guleria also said that “if you look at the last 15 to 20 years, there have been outbreaks of new viruses, and it is basically because of travel and exposure. The infection spreads rapidly and because of our increased ability to have good diagnostic tests, we are able to diagnose it more rapidly than what we could do 30 years ago when we did not have good viral labs.”

Gularia added that people need to take precautions like washing hands frequently, covering their mouths when coughing (because it is a droplet infection and spread by coughing and droplets), and avoid coming in close contact with infected individuals.

Talking about the nCoV symptoms, he said these are very nonspecific but patients show symptoms like fever, cough and cold which can lead to breathing difficulty. These can be present with pneumonia, a lower respiratory tract infection, while some people can have respiratory failure requiring ICU care and ventilator support.

“The treatment is the standard one we give for any patient with pneumonia. Unfortunately there is no antiviral drug or vaccine available for this infection as of now, but research and studies are going on to make a vaccine, which will take a few months. AIIMS is researching on antiviral drugs specifically for coronavirus, but a lot of research is going on to look for new drugs for viral infection and bacterial infection as part of multiple research project,” he said.

Following instructions from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister PK Mishra chaired a meeting on the coronavirus outbreak in China.

During the meeting, the officials apprised the Principal Secretary of the recent developments, preparedness and response measures associated with the spread of coronavirus.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare briefed the Principal Secretary on hospital and laboratory preparedness, measures taken for the capacity building of the rapid response teams and the extensive surveillance activities undertaken by the Ministry.

The Principal Secretary also reviewed the preventive measures taken by other ministries such as the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The officials assured the Principal Secretary that the situation is being closely monitored by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in close coordination with various other Union ministries as well as State governments and Union Territories.

So far, 20,000 people from 115 flights at 7 international airports have been screened. The National Institute of Virology labs all over the country are fully equipped to conduct test for the virus. All state and district health authorities have been alerted and are in the loop.

Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Secretary External Affairs Vijay Gokhale, Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar, Health Secretary Preeti Sudan, Secretary Civil Aviation Pradeep Singh Kharola and several other top officials attended the meeting. (IANS)

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