IndianEra > Coronavirus > Coronavirus Spread: Import Risk for 10 Nations, India 17th Globally

Coronavirus is hitting China very badly that the death toll reached more than 900 as of February 10, 2020.

After WHO announced the global health emergency, world nations have been on high alert to control the spread of coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the Humboldt University and Robert Koch Institute in Germany came up with some predictions about the possible spread of coronavirus.

According to them, India stands at 17th position globally in terms of high risk of importing coronavirus.

While the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi is highly vulnerable for coronavirus spread, followed by Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kochi, the researchers said.

‘Air Travel Aids Coronavirus Spread’

Air Travel Aids Coronavirus Spread

The study said that the virus spread at the global level may be facilitated by air travel.

“Wuhan, the seventh largest city in China with 11 million residents, was the relevant major domestic air transportation hub with many connecting international flights before the city was quarantined on January 23, 2020, and the Wuhan airport was closed. By then the virus had already spread to other Chinese provinces as well as other countries,” the study noted.

They estimated the possibility of virus spread based on the number of air passengers.

“The busier a flight route, the more probable it is that an infected passenger travels this route. Using these probabilistic concepts, we calculate the relative import risk to other airports. When calculating the import risk, we also take into account connecting flights and travel routes that involve multiple destinations,” the study said.

The study released the list of top-10 countries at the risk of importing coronavirus, which included Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, USA, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Cambodia.

While Thailand has an import risk of 2.1 percent, India is at the import risk of 0.2 percent.

 India Widens Precautionary Measures

India Widens Precautionary Measures

With the fears of coronavirus fast spreading, the Union Home Ministry decided to facilitate at least 50,000 Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits to medical staff treating patients.

The government is also discussing with three domestic companies over supply of PPEs for the Indian Army.

As of February 09, 2020, around 1818 flights and 1,97,192 passengers were screened across 21 Indian airports.

More than 9,000 individuals are currently under community surveillance in 32 states and UTs.

A total of 1,510 samples have been tested and 3 of them from Kerala were found positive for coronavirus and rest all were negative.


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Posted by IndianEra, 11/02/2020