Neighbours ostracising crew members: Air India

New Delhi : The Union Health Ministry announced on Sunday that States would be earmarking a certain number of hospitals to exclusively treat COVID-19 patients.

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director Balram Bhargava said a lockdown was the most essential aspect to the break the chain of transmission as of now.

"We have been using some medicines, but they are not magic. Big countries are unable to control their deaths with all the faciities at their disposal. It's important to isolate everyone who comes from outside. We have readied all hospitals," Bhargava said.

"As of now, there are 341 confirmed cases. Again, we have to understand what is relevant now is not stage of virus. The focus is to break local transmission. We have been discussing this, (community transmission ).

What is most important is to break the chain. We are calibrating testing strategy as infections have increased. There has been a rush of people coming back to the country. We can mathematically model the number of cases expected if there is confirmed community transmission.

To understand how many kits we need we are trying to do some modelling. Essential services will not be disrupted. Several labs have been given approval. There have been 60 registrations so far," he added.

The state-run carrier Air India that has been sending its planes to coronavirus-hit nations to bring back stranded Indians have criticised "vigilante resident welfare associations" for "ostracising" crew who have been abroad to help out in rescue operations.

"...It is alarming to note that in many localities, vigilante Resident Welfare Associations and neighbours have started ostracizing the crew, obstructing them from performing their duty or even calling in the police, simply because the crew travelled abroad in the course of their duty," Air India said in a statement.

"These vigilantes have conveniently forgotten that many a spouse, parent, sibling, child and near and dear one have been brought home safe and secure from affected countries, thanks to the heroic efforts of these Air India crew," the airline said.

Meanwhile, family members of Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor are now questioning the medical report which declared her as coronavirus positive.

Talking to media persons, one of the family members who requested anonymity, said that the report mentioned Kanika''s age as 28 whereas she is 41. The report says that her gender is ''male''.

The family also wanted to know why Kanika''s report was leaked to the media and then went viral on the social media. "The identity of other coronavirus patients is not being disclosed but in Kanika''s case, this practice was not followed.

We are being hounded and trolled by the public and the government is directly responsible for it," the member said.