New Delhi: About 400 COVID-19 cases have been found in the country whose epidemiological linkage can be traced to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation, the Health Ministry said on Thursday, indicating that the number could go up as testing and contact tracing was underway.
Addressing the daily briefing on the coronavirus situation in the country, Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said 328 new cases of the coronavirus infection and 12 new deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 1,965 so far in India.
“Yesterday, the cabinet secretary through video conferencing with chief secretaries and DGPs asked them to initiate intensive contact tracing of Tablighi Jamaat participants and implement containment measures on a war-footing,” Agarwal said.
Based on contact tracing and sampling conducted so far, about 400 positive cases have been identified whose epidemiological linkage can be traced to the Tablighi Jamaat cluster, he said.
This includes 173 people from Tamil Nadu, 11 from Rajasthan, nine from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 47 from Delhi, two from Puducherry, 22 from Jammu and Kashmir, 33 from Telengana, 67 from Andhra Pradesh and 16 from Assam. These numbers are increasing as more samples are being tested, Agarwal said.
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Regarding the Dharavi coronavirus case in Mumbai, he said the building there has been sealed and sample collection and contact tracing is going on as per protocol.
Appropriate action is being taken in that particular case as per protocol, he added.
On instances of medical professionals contracting coronavirus infection, Agarwal said that in majority of the cases doctors who caught the disease, and subsequently infected people associated with them, were not on COVID-19 duty. He said that there have been limited cases of doctors on duty testing positive for coronavirus.
In this context, he also highlighted the importance of training that is provided through AIIMS in coordination with states on hospital-related infection prevention control to healthcare workers and urged all of them to take precautions while dealing with COVID-19 patients.
Reacting to the attack on frontline healthcare workers, Agarwal said people should not misbehave or attack those who are rendering service despite the risk of contracting the deadly infection and reminded how people had enthusiastically expressed their solidarity with the healthcare professions during the Janta curfew on March 22.
Responding to a question over some doctors resigning because of shortage of personal protection equipment (PPEs), he acknowledged that there were problems related to the paucity of those items, and said that orders had been placed for over 1.5 crore PPEs and their supply had already started.
As far as N-95 masks are concerned, he said domestic manufacturing of the masks has been stepped up and order for over 1 crore masks have been placed with the supply to some extent started.
“The stocks of PPEs and N-95 masks which were available at the state and country level have been distributed to states in proportion to the number of coronavirus cases reported from them,” Agarwal said.
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The joint secretary said that the Prime Minister in a high-level meeting with the chief ministers of states/UTs, through video conference, urged them to manage the crisis at the district-level and to focus on testing, isolation and quarantine facilities.
States were also requested to upgrade healthcare human resource, conduct online training of frontline workers as well as increase the strength of existing capacity through involvement of retired health workers from government, private hospitals and NGOs, he said.
The official said that under the orders of the Supreme Court, states have been directed to take effective measures to fight fake news in order to prevent panic among people.
The ministry with the help of National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Science (NIMHANS) has recommended general public measures to be taken on mental health for the elderly and children to deal with anxiety and stress due to the coronavirus outbreak, he said.
A psycho-social tollfree helpline number 08046110007 is also functional for any behavioral health related query.
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