NEW DELHI: A day after a Delhi man was found positive for the deadly coronavirus, six of his family members whom he met in Agra have been quarantined.
These six people have also been kept in isolation at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday called an urgent meeting with his health minister Satyendar Jain and other top officials on the government’s preparations to deal with coronavirus.
In neighbouring Noida, two private schools cancelled classes for the next few days as a precautionary measure over the father of a student testing positive for coronavirus.
The Delhi government, meanwhile, is taking all possible steps to deal with novel coronavirus and is trying to get in touch with those who could be infected or were in contact with the infected man.
Addressing a press conference, health minister Satyendar Jain, flanked by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, said, “Covid-19 is a new infection, but there is no need to panic. We are taking all possible steps to keep Delhi safe. Isolation wards being readied in 25 hospitals, including 19 government and six private hospitals. As many as 3.5-lakh N95 masks has been arranged. We have over 8,000 separation kits for staff treating coronavirus patients,” said Jain.
Two private schools here cancelled classes on Tuesday for the next few days as a precautionary measure over the father of a student testing positive for coronavirus.
The two schools announced their closure in messages sent to the parents, a day after the Union Health Ministry reported two fresh cases of coronavirus — one of them in Delhi.
One of the schools, where the Delhi man’s son is a primary class student, said it will remain shut from March 4 to March 6. The parent had thrown a birthday party last week for the child, triggering fears that the students who attended it might be at risk.
Earlier in the day, the school said it was postponing internal examinations scheduled for Tuesday due to some unavoidable circumstances.
The board exams are not affected, the messages sent to the parents made clear.
The second school said it is suspending classes from now to March 9 and sanitizing its campus.
Fumigation was underway at both schools. A Health Department team led by Noida’s chief medical officer visited one of the schools in the morning.
Meanwhile, some family members of the coronavirus-infected Delhi-based man were shifted to Safdarjung Hospital for tests after they showed symptoms of the virus.
Some other relatives were asked to remain quarantined at their homes.
An accountant working for the man, who lives in Mayur Vihar, was also taken to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital for tests.
“The Mayur Vihar resident had thrown a birthday party for his child last week and several people came in contact with him,” said Noida’s Chief Medical Officer Anurag Bhargava.
“Sample of five such students have been taken from the school and sent to National Centre for Disease Control for tests,” Bhargava told reporters.
Meanwhile, an Army officer was admitted to the isolation ward of a military hospital at Mhow in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday for suspected exposure to the coronavirus after returning from Iran, a health official said in Indore.
