Amid Coronavirus outbreak, Health Ministry plans to sensitise students on hygiene tips

Amid the recent outbreak of the novel Coronavirus, a senior health official stated that the Union Health Ministry has come up with a plan to write to all the schools across India, asking them to sensitise the students about basic hygiene tips to follow to minimise the risk of Novel Coronavirus infection. With three confirmed cases of nCoV in Kerala, the health ministry has decided to create awareness among the children and educated them about preventive measures to avoid getting exposed to the dangerous disease.

While interacting with a news agency, Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan said, "Now that the nCoV cases are being detected in India, school administrations should sensitise their students on preventive measures related to flu-like symptoms. The parents should also take care of it."

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Third case of nCoV confirmed in Kerala 

Earlier on Monday, health officials confirmed the third positive case of Novel Coronavirus in Kerala. According to the Health Ministry, the patient has travel history from Wuhan, China. Health officials also stated that the patient is stable and is being closely monitored.

The Central government has also issued a fresh travel advisory advising people to refrain from traveling to China and that anyone with travel history to China since January 15 this year may be quarantined.

As per China's Health Commission, the latest data on the coronavirus outbreak in China till today states that the country has 17,205 confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland, another 15 in Hong Kong, 8 in Macao, and 10 cases have been reported confirmed in Taiwan. So far, as many as 361 people have died of the infection. 

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Global health emergency

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has now declared the coronavirus outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). After the second meeting of the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee regarding the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, the committee acknowledged that human-to-human transmission has occurred outside Wuhan and China. 

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus congratulated the Chinese government for the ‘extraordinary measures’ it took to contain the virus, despite the severe social and economic impact those measures are having on the Chinese people. “We don’t know what sort of damage this coronavirus could do if it were to spread in a country with a weaker health system. We must act now to help countries prepare for that possibility," said Ghebreyesus during the press conference after the meeting.

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(With inputs from ANI)