After a Delhi mohalla clinic doctor tested positive for COVID-19, over 800 people who came in contact with him have been quarantined. His wife and 17-year-old daughter have also tested positive, according to reports.
“A total of 800 people who came in contact with the mohalla clinic doctor have been quarantined for 14 days,” Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Thursday. The doctor may have contracted it from an infected woman who had visited the clinic. She had returned from Saudi Arabia. Five more persons who had come in contact with the woman, have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, NDTV reported.
The number of positive cases in the national capital now stands at 36, according to reports.
Coronavirus cases in the country crossed 600 on Wednesday as authorities beefed up preparedness to fight the pandemic with the Army ordnance factories and central paramilitary forces earmarking over 2,000 beds in their chain of hospitals for isolation and treatment of people affected by COVID-19.
Nearly 90 more coronavirus positive cases were reported in India taking the total number of cases to 606 on Wednesday while the number of deaths was 10, according to health ministry data.
The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 553 while 43 people have been cured, discharged or migrated. The 606 positive cases include 43 foreign nationals, the ministry said. The ministry said Maharashtra has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases so far at 128, including three foreign nationals, followed by Kerala which has recorded 109 cases, including eight foreign nationals.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a complete nationwide lockdown for 21 days from Tuesday midnight, asserting in an emotional appeal "with folded hands" that unless India's 130 crore people practise social distancing, the country will lose the war against coronavirus outbreak and slide back 21 years.
-with PTI inputs
