Group of ministers meet to discuss coronavirus outbreak

Feb 04,2020

Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, PKK Mishra, held a high-level meeting to review the coronavirus infection.

Sanjeev Kumar, Special Secretary, Health Department, said, "National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Prime Minister's Principal Advisor PK Sinha, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and Secretaries of various ministries participated in the review meeting taken by PKK Mishra."

Notably, over 400 people have died of coronavirus in China so far. At the same time, more than 20,000 people are suffering from this infection.

A Group of Ministers (GoM) has been formed to deal with the coronavirus on the instructions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Foreign Minister SS Jaishankar, Minister of State for Home Kishan Reddy, Minister of State for Health Ashwani Kumar Choubey and Minister of State for Shipping Mansukh Lal Mandavia are part of the GoM.

The GoM constituted by PM Modi will look after the work related to the preparation, management, review and evaluation of the prevention of coronavirus in the country.

The first meeting of the GoM took place at Nirman Bhavan in New Delhi on Monday which was chaired by Health Minister Harsh Vardhan. In this meeting, a thorough review of preparations for prevention of coronavirus was made.

The concerned authorities made a presentation on the current situation of coronavirus before the GoM. All the members were informed about the three individuals infected with coronavirus in Kerala. Also, they informed the GoM about the steps being taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus across the country.

The GoM was also informed about the two camps run by the Indo-Tibetan Border Force in Delhi and by the Indian Army at Manesar in Gurugram. 645 Indians have been kept in both these camps after they were safely brought to New Delhi from Wuhan province of China.

Health Department Special Secretary Sanjeev Kumar said, "A total of 593 aircraft passengers coming from abroad have been tested so far. Thermal screening of 72,353 passengers has been done."

The thermal screening is now being done at 21 different airports of the country. Sanjeev Kumar said, "At present 2,815 aircraft passengers from different countries have been put on surveillance. So far, samples of 338 people have been sent for testing, of which 335 have been found completely safe."

Sanjeev Kumar said, "The Union Health Ministry has appointed the Pune-based lab as the nodal center for testing coronavirus. Currently, samples of coronavirus are being tested at 12 different locations in the country, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad."