Telangana State government sounds alert on Coronavirus

Hyderabad: Amid fears of a bigger outbreak of the Coronavirus (300 positive cases and six deaths till date) in China, the Indian government has ramped up various measures like alerting all States and Union Territories (UTs) as a matter of abundant precaution apart from thermal screening of passengers being initiated in six airports across the country including Hyderabad.

Secretary of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has written to all States/UTs to review their preparedness, identify gaps and strengthen core capacities in the area of surveillance, laboratory support, infection prevention and control, logistics, risk communication and in particular, hospital preparedness in terms of isolation and ventilator management of critically ill patients of Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI).

Also, an advisory has been issued to all States for SARI surveillance to pick up any travel-related case reported in the community and follow up contacts of suspect/confirmed cases. National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune is fully geared up to test samples of the Coronavirus apart from ten other laboratories under Indian Council of Medical Research's Viral Research and Diagnostics Laboratories network.

The Telangana government's Health department has received a communication from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to this effect. All information regarding the new virus has been passed on to the States which have been told to convey the same to the district level.

The Health department has communicated to DMHOs (District Medical and Health Officer) in all 33 districts to alert all hospitals (government and private) and district health staff on the ground.

Accordingly, hospitals were told to strictly monitor cases that come with acute respiratory problems (out-patients and inpatients) and to go for collection of samples after checking their recent travel history. These samples have to be sent to NIV, Pune to check for positive or negative to the deadly Coronavirus.

Meanwhile, screening of passengers at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad has commenced from Tuesday midnight (early hours of Wednesday). All arrangements are in place and already trained health staff were deputed within the airport to screen the passengers.