Number of COVID-19 confirmed cases increases to 44 in India

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : With one more patient from Punjab testing positive, the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases increased to 44 in India o n March 9, 2020, evening.

Union Cabinet Secretary took a video conference with Chief Secretaries of all States/UTs here ton March 9 and emphasised on actions like surveillance at points of entry (PoE), surveillance in the community, laboratory support and hospital preparedness. He called upon States/UTs to scale up logistics, quarantine facilities, capacity building, information management and risk communication.

As of now there are 44 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country (3 positive cases from Kerala which are now discharged). As many as 11,913 cases are under IDSP community follow up. Four hundred four Indian contacts of the US citizen testing positive in Bhutan have been identified and put under surveillance in Assam.

A total of 9,41,717 international passengers from 8,827 flights have been screened at airports till now with 54 passengers being referred to IDSP/ hospitals.

To meet the increasing demand and convenient screening of passengers, manpower deployed at airports have been substantially increased. There are now 286 doctors, 160 nurses and 295 paramedics stationed at airports across the country, according to a PIB release.