Search on for infected, virus footprint expands

Over 140 under watch as India looks for spreaders

NEWDELHI/JAIPUR/AGRA: At least 46 people in the Delhi-ncr region – and about 100 others across the country – have been quarantined, isolated or put under watch for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), officials said on Tuesday as they launched a massive contacttracing operation for new infections and ordered reinforcing of health care facilities to stave off a full-blown epidemic.

Experts said that there was no need for panic, but urged people to follow hygiene and reporting protocols.

The identified people are believed to have been in close contact with three confirmed patients – a tourist from Italy, a Delhi resident who flew back from Italy via Vienna last month, and a Bengaluru-based engineer who returned from Dubai and went on to travel to Hyderabad even as he had symptoms of the infection.

At least seven of those under watch — six from Agra who are the Delhi man’s relatives, and the Italian tourist’s wife — are believed to have been infected, local-level tests showed, but their status will only be confirmed by Pune’s National Institute of Virology (NIV). Results are expected by Wednesday midday.

The people who have been quarantined include family members of the patients, people they met at social gatherings, fellow passengers, and crews of airlines and hotels they had been in while they were infected and, thus, potentially infectious.

As a precaution, two schools in Noida – including one where the Delhi patient’s children are students – have been closed for the week.

“India is at a cusp where infection control can go either way. Self-reporting and high-quality contact-tracing, home quarantining and isolation are crucial to stop its spread because if we have a large cluster in smaller towns

and rural areas, we will have a huge problem,” said Dr Randeep Guleria, director and professor of pulmonary medicine at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

The new coronavirus, a pathogen not seen anywhere in the world till it began spreading in central China’s Wuhan in late December, has become an epidemiological nightmare as it sickened close to 92,000 people and killed 3,100 in approximately three months.

It has now spread to nearly 75 countries.

“Had an extensive review regarding preparedness on the Covid-19 Novel Coronavirus. Different ministries and states are working together, from screening people arriving in India to providing prompt medical attention,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet, adding: “There is no need to panic. We need to work together, take small yet important measures to ensure self-protection.”