Coronavirus Pandemic | People Should Not Go For Test Out Of Fashion, Says Health Ministry

The Health Ministry on Saturday said that the people should not go out for test out of fashion or to build confidence and urged them to follow the protocols set by the government. The ministry also informed that more than 200 people, mostly students, will fly from Rome to India on Saturday. "1600 Indians and people from other countries were kept in quarantine centres in India. Today 262 people from Rome, mostly students will come & they will be kept in quarantine centres," Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry said.

On the issue of face mask and sanitizer shortage, the ministry said there is no shortage of essential commodities masks, sanitisers and asked people not to indulge in panic buying. "Government working to ramp up production of masks, sanitisers, states is asked to allow deodorant manufacturers to produce sanitisers," the ministry said. "Retail prices of hand sanitizer shall not be more than Rs.100 per bottle of 200 ml the prices of other quantities of hand sanitizers shall be fixed in proportion of these price," the ministry added.

To access the response of the government hospitals for handling the coronavirus cases, the government said that it will conduct mock drill on March 22. "Asymptomatic direct, high-risk contacts of confirmed cases should be tested once between 5-14 days of coming in contact," Health ministry said. "We conducted training on critical care management at 1,000 places through video conference," it added.