People who have returned from China after Jan 15 to be tested for coronavirus

The government on Thursday said that all those who have come from China after January 15 will be tested for novel coronavirus as there is an incubation period for the virus.

Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba held a meeting here on Thursday and reviewed the preparedness to deal with the threat of the spread of novel coronavirus. Officials from the Ministries of Health and Family Welfare, External Affairs, Defence, Home Affairs, Civil Aviation, Information and Broadcasting, Labour and Employment and Shipping attended the meeting.

A video conference with the chief secretaries of states and UTs was also held.

A Health and Family Welfare Ministry release said that a number of new steps have been taken to deal with the threat of the virus.

"All those who have come from China after January 15, 2020 shall be tested as there in an incubation period for the virus," it said.

The cabinet secretary stressed upon the need for 14-day home isolation for all those who have returned from China. People have been advised to avoid a trip to China.

As part of efforts to augment the lab facilities, six more labs will start functioning from Thursday - NIV Bengaluru Unit; Victoria Hospital Campus, KR Road, Fort, Bengaluru; AIIMS, New Delhi; NCDC Delhi; Kasturba Hospital for infectious diseases Mumbai and NIV Kerala Unit.

The release said six more labs will start function by January 31 - ICMR NICED, Kolkata; GMC Secunderabad; KGMU Lucknow; SMS Jaipur; IGGMC Nagpur and KIPMR Chennai.

It said that the discharge portal for patients has been prepared by DGHS which is being disseminated.

The meeting decided that check-posts in relevant tourist locations will be set up for better surveillance.

In villages bordering Nepal, gram panchayats are being orgsed to make people more aware regarding the symptoms, precautions and measures taken by the state governments regarding prevention and management for novel coronavirus.

States have also been advised to open control rooms, appoint a nodal officer and popularize the control room number.

The states have been asked to be prepare IEC material in local language.

The release said that a total of 7711 confirmed cases have been reported in China and 170 people have died due to the virus.

The release said there have been coronavirus cases in 21 countries including 14 in Thailand, Singapore (10), Australia (5), USA (5), Japan (8), South Korea (4), Malaysia (7), France (4), Vietnam (2) Canada (2), Nepal (1), Cambodia (1), Sri Lanka (1) Germany (4), UAE (4), Hong Kong (10), Macao (7), Taiwan (8), Finland (1), Angola (1) and India (1).

One positive case of Novel Coronavirus patient has been reported in Kerala.

The release said that the patient, a student studying the Wuhan University, has tested positive for novel coronavirus and is in isolation in the hospital.

The patient is stable and is being closely monitored.

The release said that 234 flights have been screened in 21 airports and 43346 passengers have been screened.

It said National Institute of Virology Pune is fully geared up to test samples of nCoV.

"Adequate lab reagents are available with NIV Pune to test 5000 samples. Forty-nine samples have been referred to NIV for testing and 48 have tested negative," the release said.

High-level review meetings on preparedness for Novel Coronavirus are regularly being held by the Union Health Minister, Cabinet Secretary and Health Secretary. The Cabinet Secretary has held four review meetings so far.

( With inputs from ANI )