The new virus that originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan has now spread beyond becoming a global scare and has suspected cases even India.
New Delhi| Air India has kept one of its plane ready in Mumbai for the evacuation of Indian citizens from Wuhan province in China in the wake of coronavirus outbreak in the East Asian country, an official source said today.
India has started preparations to evacuate citizens stranded in Wuhan: MEA
The virus-hit Wuhan city has a large number of Indians, mostly students studying medicine in different Chinese universities.
Also Read: Coronavirus outbreak kills nine in China; reaches other countries including the US
According to Press Trust India, over 250 Indians are to be evacuated, the source said, adding, “we are awaiting clearances from Ministry of External Affairs and also from Health Ministry. The Health Ministry’s nod is required because the operating crew has to fly in a virus outbreak territory.”
The death toll in China due to coronavirus rose to 106 on Tuesday. China’s national health commission said the number of confirmed cases now stood at 4,515, up from 2,835 a day before.
Over 430 people have been placed under surveillance at their homes in Kerala. A new screening facility will be opened in Thiruvananthapuram airport today for possible exposure to the novel coronavirus.
According to Dr Minakshi Bhardwaj, medical superintendent of RML Hospital, three male patients, from Delhi and Ghaziabad, had visited China recently and walked into the hospital on their own on Monday. They have been isolated, and their samples have been sent for tests.
Mumbai reported its fourth suspected case. A 28-year-old man, who returned from China recently, has been admitted to the isolation ward of a Chandigarh hospital.
A Chinese national on a tourist visa in the city has been kept in an isolation ward after she complained of high fever and rashes
So far, 20 samples of coronavirus strain from across India have been sent to NIV Pune, all tested negative.
The World Health Organization, in the midst of criticism for underrating the risk factor from the fast-spreading Wuhan Coronavirus, has finally moved to rate the risk at High and acknowledged it as a global outbreak.
WHO said in its report on the risk as “very high in China, high at the regional level and high at the global level,” was incorrect and stands corrected now. However, the High risk at the global level indicates the serious situation the world is facing and short of declaring it as a global health emergency.
The WHO’s director-general said on Tuesday he is confident in China’s ability to control and contain the spread of a new coronavirus.
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