Coronavirus: India planning to get testing kits from South Korea
Do face masks help?
The Central government is in touch with South Korean companies to import testing kits in the wake of the global coronavirus scare.
The administration has been keeping a close watch on the preparedness of the health facilities in the wake of the rising number of confirmed cases of COVID-19. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) presided over a video conferencing with the state governments and discussed the critical care units being established across the country.
The scarcity of testing kits, hence, can prove to be a major roadblock on India’s road to recovery.
South Korea, on the other hand, has tested the highest number of people in the world — an approximately 3 lakh. The country has over 650 testing centres nationwide and given its size, this is equivalent to over 20,000 testing centres in India.
Talks, thereby, are on, and South Korea is likely to sign on the dotted line — provided it has enough surplus.
In South Korea, more than 8,000 people are reported to have been infected with the novel coronavirus. Death toll has risen to 80.
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India tested 14,811 people till Saturday. As of Saturday morning, 271 people were tested positive for the virus. Four have been declared dead.
Earlier in the day, theIndian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)said it revised its strategy to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus. It said all hospitalised patients with severe acute respiratory illness, shortness of breath and having fever and cough will now be tested forCOVID-19infection. The newICMRguidelines also said asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of a confirmed case should be tested once between day 5 and day 14 of coming in his/her contact.
The MoHFW added the health facilities and services were being amped up. As many as 111 labs have been made functional.
India has so far witnessed cases of COVID-19 mostly related to travel and local transmission from imported cases. Community transmission of the disease has not been documented till now.
Maharashtra remains the worst-hit with 52 positive cases, followed by Kerala which has 40 cases of COVID-19 including 3 students from Wuhan who recovered last month.
26 confirmed cases -- including 3 patients who have now recovered -- in Delhi-NCR region.