Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Srinagar, Mar 7: Amid coronavirus scare, the government has asked all the departments including the general public to reduce mass gatherings in order to avoid spread of novel coronavirus.
Meanwhile officials said that the government has directed schools to suspend morning assembly as a precautionary measure for coronavirus.
In a memorandum, released by the government, it said that “experts across the country have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 novel coronavirus disease. In this view, it is advised that mass gatherings may be avoided or possibly be postponed till the disease spread is contained.”
Top officials in the government said that in case any such mass gatherings were organized, “the authorities may take necessary action to guide the organisers on precautions to be taken so to avoid any Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) cases and influenza like illness (ILIs) including COVID-19”.
All primary schools in Jammu, Samba and in four districts of Kashmir including Srinagar have been shut down after two people were suspected to be infected by the highly contagious Novel Coronavirus. “Test reports of the two suspected patients from Jammu received. Both high viral load cases. High probability of testing positive,” Principal Secretary of Planning in the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory Rohit Kansal tweeted Saturday morning.
At least 31 confirmed cases have been reported so far from India, of which the previous three patients from Kerala have recovered. The patients include Italians and Indian nationals.
The first COVID-19 outbreak was reported in China’s Wuhan City in December last year. Since then it has spread to more than 60 countries including Italy, Iran and South Korea.
The flu like disease has symptoms of pneumonia and shortness of breath.
The total number of Covid-19 cases crossed 1 lakh globally. The number of deaths caused by the novel coronavirus worldwide stood at 3,411 on Friday. India hasn’t reported any deaths. As of March 5, 29,607 people across India were under observation through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) network for the novel coronavirus.
The latest to test positive for the infection is a 25-year-old man from Delhi’s Uttam Nagar. He is the third Covid-19 patient from the capital.
The government has already issued orders to suspend Aadhaar-based biometric attendance till to prevent transmission of Covid-19.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said while China, where Covid-19 outbreak started, is reporting a downward trend in number of infections, the rate of transmission in other countries is going up. “
