It’s a pandemic, says WHO; India COVID-19 cases 60 now
All countries can still change the course of this pandemic...if countries detect, test, treat, isolate, trace and mobilize their people in the response, said WHOWHO’s stark warning came hours after the Karnataka govt announced India’s first suspected death from the pandemic
PremiumBENGALURU/NEW DELHI : The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of Covid-19 a pandemic on Wednesday, on a day the virus was suspected to have claimed its first life in India—that of a 76-year-old man in Kalaburagi, Karnataka, who died late on Tuesday with symptoms like breathlessness, cold and cough.
A pandemic is an occurrence of a disease that affects many people over a very wide area.
“We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, noting there are now more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries and 4,291 deaths.
“We are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction. We have therefore made the assessment that Covid-19 can be characterized as a pandemic," he told a news conference.
“All countries can still change the course of this pandemic...if countries detect, test, treat, isolate, trace and mobilize their people in the response," he added.
The global agency’s stark warning came hours after the Karnataka government announced India’s first suspected death from the pandemic. However, the cause of death is yet to be confirmed by the National Institute of Virology, whose report is expected on Thursday. The Union health ministry gave no confirmation.
The central government on Wednesday suspended visas of all foreign nationals with effect from 13 March till 15 April as 10 new cases of Covid-19 infection were reported, taking the nationwide toll to 60. The bulk of the patients reported on Wednesday came from Kerala, where eight new cases took the state’s total to 17. They include three who have made a recovery.
One person each tested positive in Delhi and Rajasthan.
The visa restrictions follow the home ministry conferring the health secretary with special powers under the Disaster Management Act.
Meanwhile, central and state governments stepped up efforts to bring back Indians stuck abroad in countries affected by Covid-19.
At the Kerala government’s request, the Centre plans to fly out doctors to Italy to bring back stranded Indians, Union minister of state for external affairs V. Muraleedharan told mediapersons.
“It is inhumane to tell our own people that they can’t return to India," Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the state assembly. To enter India, passengers from abroad need to show a certificate saying they have been tested for Covid-19 and do not have the infection. But those stranded in Italy are finding it difficult to obtain clearance certificates as local doctors are overloaded and are refusing to test those without symptoms, he said. India recently set up a laboratory in Iran to deal with a similar situation.
With the number of cases rising in India, the Union home ministry has also stepped up preparedness. Paramilitary forces have been asked to set up quarantine facilities similar to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) facility at Chhawla in Haryana.
Eighty-three passengers who arrived from Italy on Wednesday have been quarantined at the army facility at Manesar in Haryana.
The government’s group of ministers met on Wednesday, as did all secretaries in a second meeting, to take stock of the preparedness.
The transport ministry is taking its own measures. On Wednesday, it advised all entities under it to ensure the sanitation of seats, handles and bars in public transport vehicles, as well as to step up hygiene and sanitation at all bus terminals. The health ministry said that none in the first batch of 58 evacuees from Iran who arrived on Tuesday had shown any symptoms of the infection. Since the outbreak of the virus, India has evacuated 900 of its citizens and 48 others from the countries affected by Covid-19.
Nidheesh M.K. from Ernakulam and Shaswati Das from New Delhi contributed to this story.
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