Of 930 returns from China to Gujarat so far reports of 3 suspected cases awaited, central team arrives

Gandhinagar/Ahmedabad: A total of 930 people from Novel Corona Virus affected China have returned to Gujarat so far out of which the reports of 3 suspected cases were still awaited even as a central team today visited various places in the state to take stock of the preparedness of the state machinery to deal with any situation and also the precautionary measures being taken on prevention part.

Later addressing a press conference in presence of the central team, Principal Secretary Health Jayanti Ravi said that of the total 1027 Gujarati people who returned from China till date after the outbreak of corona virus, a total of 930 have came to Gujarat. Of these 246 were kept under observation as part of precautionary 2 weeks quarantine as the symptoms took around as much of time to show up.

She said that a total of 8 people returning from China to Gujarat were found to be suspicious and their samples were sent for testing to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune. Of these five have been found to be negative while the reports of three others were still awaited. So far there was no confirmed case of Corona virus infection in Gujarat.

She said that though there was no need to panic yet precautions must be taken. Hand hygiene or hand wash should be maintained, coughing should be done properly and spitting should be avoided at public places.

The Principal Secretary said that the central team visiting Gujarat saw the screening preparations at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad and also visited the civil hospital there to see the isolation ward that has been prepared as part of precautionary measures. They also were apprised about the appropriated availability of equipment and things like ventilators, masks, kits etc to deal with any eventuality. The team has expressed satisfaction over the measures. The state health department has also given awareness tips to the health workers till the village and panchayat level.

A woman member of the central team and health expert on the occasion said that people should not panic. as the death rate due to the infection was just around 2 %. ‘Out of the total around 24000 infections across the globe so far only 425 have died which is just around 2%. Of the total cases around 99% were in China and of those 97% in only the one district, of which Wuhan is the capital. Due to frequent traveling these days, the virus has also spread to other parts of the world but only two deaths have happened outside of China so far. In India so far there were three confirmed cases and all were in Kerala but the patients were doing fine. The infection has symptoms like normal flu but due to mutation of the virus it has become somewhat deadly,’ she said.

DeshGujarat