According to SOP, those testing positive will be isolated in a separate unit of an institutional facility.
All international passengers will henceforth be screened at airports, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said at a press conference. Earlier, travellers from only 12 countries were screened at airports for the disease that has claimed over 3,000 lives and infected more than 90,000 worldwide.
They have named this unique cluster of virus population as 'Clade A3i' found in 41 per cent of the genome sequenced in India.
Three persons, including an NRI from Canada, were being checked on Monday for suspected H1N1 flu after they complained of fever and other symptoms even as people were screened at airports across the country for the deadly virus that has hit the US, Europe and Latin America.
During the day, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan held a meeting to review preparedness for COVID-19 management, through video conference with health ministers, chief secretaries of all states and UTs, central ministers and representatives from the related organisations and stressed on the need for keeping testing and quarantine facilities, isolation wards, and labs in active readiness.
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan advised people to refrain from non-essential travel to Iran, Italy, South Korea and Singapore.
India's largest airline has also told its crew members -- who are working on flights connecting India with East Asian countries like Thailand and Singapore -- to wear N95 masks at all times when they are on ground.
A security drill on Sunday created a major scare and sent Air India and security officials into a tizzy after a grenade-like object was found on a Boeing 747 aircraft when it landed at Jeddah in the wee hours.
As Shah Rukh Khan turns 56 on November 2, the Men In White Abbas-Mustan talk to Rediff.com Contributor Roshmila Bhattacharya about the time when Khan would keep them sleepless for several nights.
Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana have announced a lockdown of educational institutions, malls and other places that attract people in large numbers, even as some of them have been reporting increase in positive cases.
'India needs to do what India can do, which is to keep the number of cases down.' 'If it manages to keep the cases down, it will save lives.'
'They are waiting for the kind of experience they had in the film, the kind of emotion they felt in the film.'
This comes ahead of the resumption of the functioning of metro rails across the country from September 7.
The government will also evacuate Indians on Friday from China's Wuhan city, the epicentre of the deadly Coronavirus, which has spread to at least 17 countries already.
In a security scare, a dummy stun-grenade was on Saturday found on board an Air India jumbo plane as it landed at Jeddah in the wee hours, which the airline attempted to downplay but was rebuffed by Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju who called it a "failure".
'If standard protocols are meticulously followed and hospital facilities remain on high alert, direct COVID-19 deaths should be kept to less than 7,500-8,000 in the present pandemic'
'Shooting the Golmaal songs are the happiest phase of the shoot because everyone is together and there is lot of fun.'
Students enrolled to Silicon Valley University, California, are in a state of panic after some of them were barred by Air India to board its flight.
Uber said it is conducting a full audit of its verification, rider feedback and support processes apart from assessing its driver screening processes, Ola is getting GPS installed in all its partner taxis.
'Kerala is probably the only state, where (with regard to) the clinical management and the overall protocols, we have an infectious disease team heading the whole containment plan.'
'Bobby Deol has a child-like quality which makes you love him instantly.'
Syed Firdaus Ashraf explains why the Bollywood legend will remain an eternal part of his life.
Anjana Reddy explores the market for home-grown Indian celebrity fashion brands at affordable prices.
Maharashtra has reported 31 positive cases, Kerala 19, Uttar Pradesh 11, Delhi and Karnataka six each, Ladakh three, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Telangana two each; and Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab one case each. The total number of confirmed cases also includes 17 foreigners -- 16 Italian tourists and a Canadian, it said.
'India is too large a place to have just 10 labs performing these Covid-19 tests.'
Love pours in from all around the globe!
The Union Health ministry put the number of positive cases at 82, eight more since Thursday night, which includes the woman and a 76-year-old man from Karnataka who became the country's first coronavirus fatality besides 17 foreign nationals, Health Ministry officials said.
'Unfortunately, in today's world, people feel it is luxury to eat pizza. I am not saying all pizzas are bad, I am not saying you shouldn't be eating it. But eating fast food constantly is the reason why everyone is getting these problems. The air is polluted, the water is probably polluted. You can't do much about that but we can check our food. Junk food has zero fiber and that creates havoc in your body. That's another reason why people get cancer.' Emraan Hashmi, in an enlightening interview.
'From the beginning (I have told her) "Whatever it may be -- you are losing or winning -- on the ground you're not going to cry!" She never cried.' '"I don't want you to project that you are a loser. You are a winner".' Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com speaks to Leela Raj about her famous daughter, now in the West Indies for the women's T20 World Cup.
