Gandhinagar, March 4 (IANS): With Union Health Minister confirming 25 cases of COVID-19 at present in the country, the Gujarat government on Wednesday said that since January 15, they have screened as many as 1,582 passengers who have entered the state.
"We have received information from the Centre that a total of 1,582 passengers coming from abroad since January 15 in Gujarat, were screened for coronavirus. These passengers include people who have entered the state through airports, bus terminals or any other modes of transport," Jaiprakash Shivhare, Commissioner for Health and Family welfare, Gujarat told IANS on Wednesday.
"Out of the total 1,582 passengers, screening has been done for 944 passengers from China, 141 from Thailand, 131 from Australia, 88 from New Zealand, 84 from Iran, 45 from the US, 42 from Canada, 37 from Hong Kong, 26 from Singapore and 11 from Japan," added Shivhare.
The health officials also said that at least 25 suspected cases for coronavirus were quarantined out of the total passengers, reports of which have found to be negative.
Total of 1,042 passengers have finished their observation period of 28 days and all are certified to be healthy.
We are constantly monitoring this situation, the officials added.
At the airports, the passengers arriving from abroad are mandatorily been asked to give a declaration regarding their health status and they are under watch through follow-ups by the concerned District and Corporation health officials.
In the preparedness against the Coronavirus, a special control room has been set up at the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC). Every Thursday, the situation is reviewed by the health department in coordination with the District and Corporation officials.
The Ahmedabad civil hospital has been converted into the Base hospital, where 29 isolation wards have been set up equipped with 29 ventilators. Apart from that, in every medical college and district hospitals in the state, isolation wards have been setup.
"The state of Gujarat is now ready to fight the Corona invasion with total of 576 isolation wards and 204 ventilators in all," said ShivHare.
"Earlier all the suspected samples of the passengers were sent to the National Virology institute at Pune, but now the BJ medical college in Ahmedabad has been equipped with testing laboratory where all the samples are diagnosed, " Shivhare added.
Besides the airports, all the shipping ports are also being closely monitored with screening. Till date as many as 1,454 passengers have been screened from 24 ships, according to the Gujarat health department.