The Indian Army will set up quarantine facilities for 1500 people in different parts of the country such as Jaisalmer, Suratgarh, Secunderabad, Chennai and Kolkata etc. in a bid to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
Sources said that the men in uniform had been asked to avoid crowded places and non-essential foreign travel. They had been advised to use shopping complexes within cantonments. The Army Headquarters had also released a detailed advisory with regards to tackling the coronavirus outbreak.
The advisory had asked security personnel to set up isolation wards and separate out-patient departments for the screening of “symptomatic cases”. These quarantine facilities will work in tandem with local medicos and designated laboratories of the Indian Council of Medical Research. Counselling and Health Education would also be provided at all military stations.
Similar guidelines had been issued by the Indian Air Force. The Indian navy had to defer its maritime exercise (Milan), scheduled between March 18-28 due to the coronavirus outbreak. A key security conference, scheduled between March 12 and 13 was also postponed by The Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.
Lieutenant General BK Chopra (retd) was quoted as saying, “From natural calamities to outbreak of communicable diseases such as the coronavirus, you can count on armed forces to deliver in an effective and systematic manner.”
Another positive case of coronavirus has been reported from Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad on Thursday, taking the total number of cases in India to 30 so far. According to reports, the Ghaziabad man is a middle-aged person with a recent travel history to Iran.
In a shocking incident, an Irish national, suspected to be carrying the coronavirus, had absconded from SCB Medical College and Hospital in Odisha’s Cuttack late on Thursday. The affected person was admitted and was kept in the isolation ward as he was suspected to have been infected with COVID-19. He was later found in a private hotel in Bhubaneswar.
