Union Minister V Muraleedharan is in self quarantine after he attended a meeting in a medical institute in Trivandrum on 14 March. A doctor there who returned from Spain, tested positive for COVID 19 on 15 March.
Meanwhile Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope has called for an urgent meeting on the novel coronavirus and the state’s preparedness in dealing with it. He is meeting leaders from the corporate and health sector. The report comes after Maharashtra reported its first casualty due COVID-19, the patient was a 64-year-old woman who passed away in Mumbai today.
Maharashtra is also the state with the highest number of infections in India, with 39 confirmed cases so far.
In a bid to protect police personnel from novel coronavirus infection, Maharashtra Highway Police has suspended breath-analyser tests needed to check drunk driving, a senior officer has said. “Outbreak of coronavirus has been reported in the state. To contain the spread of the virus, the police personnel need to take precautionary measures accordingly. “Hence, Traffic Police personnel in all police units should not conduct breath-analyser tests for alcohol consumption by motorists,” stated the circular.
In between Following a BJP parliamentary party meet, the party said that the Parliament’s functioning will not be stopped.
During the meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the medical staff for their role in tackling the outbreak and also praised the media for spreading awareness.
Two persons tested positive for coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida. While one case has been reported from Sector 78, the other has been detected in Sector 100. One person had a travel history to France. Both have been admitted to a designated isolation hospital
On other side US researchers gave the first shot to the first person in a test of an experimental coronavirus vaccine today, leading a worldwide hunt for protection even as the pandemic surges, The Associated Press reported.
Dr Lisa Jackson, Kaiser Permanente investigator leading the study, said, “This is the first trial of this vaccine. So our goals are pretty basic. We want to look at safety and then secondary to that, we want to look at the immune response. These are people who are volunteering to be in a trial for a vaccine that’s never been given to humans before. There are some inherent risks. I think most of them are all acting out of sense of public good and wanting to help in this process.”
