New Delhi: A high alert has been issued across states sharing international borders with Nepal in view of the outbreak of Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) on Friday.
However, the Centre has decided to examine all travellers from China since January 15 for nCoV.
It has also decided to keep all those who have returned from China to keep in 14 days home isolation.
A top government official said that officials of the health ministry have been assisting the community health providers in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim to aware the citizens over nCoV.
Health Addtional secretary Sanjeeva Kumar also had a special video conferencing on Friday with the health secretaries of this five states in view of the Novel Coronavirus.
"As these states share their border with Nepal. So, we are taking maximum precautions in these states," the government official said.
Along with the already existing six laboratories for nCoV, six more labs have started functioning from Friday at ICMR-NICED, Kolkata, GMC, Secunderabad, KGMU, Lucknow, SMS, Jaipur, IGGMC, Nagpur and KIPMR, Chennai.
As on Friday 43346 passengers of 234 flights have been screened for nCoV.
As many as 49 samples have been sent for NIV-Pune for testing out of which one was tested positive.
The female patient with nCoV from Kerala was studying in Wuhan university in China.
Meanwhile, five more persons including four men and one woman have been admitted at Delhi's RML hospital for possible exposure to nCoV.
However, the three men who were admitted at RML for suspected nCoV exposure tested negative.
Earlier, this week their blood samples were sent to NIV-Pune for testing.
The Novel Coronavirus has its origin in China. It has already killed at least 170 people and infected more than 7,700 in China.
The disease has now spread to at least 17 countries.
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