Health minister Harshvardhan on Tuesday assured the Kerala government of all possible support from the Centre to check the spread of Nipah virus. The minister held a meeting at his residence with all the officers, including health secretary, to take stock of the situation.
“On Tuesday morning I called a meeting of all the officers, including health secretary, at my residence. Monday itself we had dispatched a team of six officers to Kerala,” he told reporters New Delhi.
The minister said that he has assured the Kerala government of all possible help from the Centre. “I have assured the Kerala Health Minister of all possible support from the Central government. We are also in touch with wildlife department to seek their help for subjecting the bats for testing of the virus. I don’t think there is any need to panic,” the minister said.
Kerala on Tuesday set up isolation wards after a student tested positive for the Nipah virus that killed 17 people in the state last year. The student was hospitalised with high fever in Kochi ten days ago, state health minister K.K. Shylaja told reporters after a review meeting at Kalamassery Medical College, adding the government was awaiting final results of tests from a Pune-based virology institute.
The government has opened isolation wards at medical colleges in three districts where the patient’s movements have been traced — Ernakulam, Kozhikode and Thrissur.
