Amid coronavirus scare, the Jammu and Kashmir administration on Saturday announced the closure of all primary schools in Jammu and Samba districts till March 31. This came after two suspected coronavirus patients undergoing treatment at a hospital were ‘high viral-load cases’. “The test reports of the two suspected coronavirus patients were received, which spoke of them being high viral-load cases. There is a high probability of their testing positive for the infection,” the spokesperson of administration said. Both the patients were kept in isolation at the Government Medical College, Jammu.
Jammu and Kashmir has been put on alert to deal with any threat emerging from COVID-19 as around 200 people with a travel history to coronavirus-affected countries or who had contacts with people from such countries have been identified.
Nearly two dozen suspected cases have been tested in the Union territory till date but no positive case has been reported so far.
So far, 31 people have tested positive for coronavirus in India, according to the Union Health Ministry. A total of 29,607 people are under observation of Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) network as on March 5 for possible exposure to novel coronavirus.
As on March 4, a total of 6,241 flights have been screened covering 6,11,167 passengers, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had said.
Specialist doctors were sent to all airports to ensure effective screening and arrangement for isolation in attached hospitals. Besides this, screening has been initiated at border crossings, he said.
Vardhan said all regular and e-visas issued to Italian, Iranian, South Korean and Japanese nationals on or before March 3 and who have not yet entered India, stand suspended with immediate effect.
Regular and e-visa issued to Chinese nationals on or before February 5 were suspended earlier and shall remain in force, he said.
(With PTI inputs)