Army to establish quarantine centres for 1,500 people as coronavirus spreads

The Indian
Army will establish quarantine facilities for 1,500 people at different
locations across the country in the wake of rising cases of novel coronavirus
infections outside China, two officials familiar with the move said on Friday.

The
tentative locations where such facilities will come up as part of the
government’s overall efforts to control the spread of Covid-19 include
Jaisalmer, Suratgarh, Secunderabad, Chennai and Kolkata, said one of the
officials cited above.

Service
personnel have also been asked to utilise shopping complex facilities within
cantonments and military stations and avoid visits to crowded areas, including
shopping malls and movie halls. The army has also asked its personnel to avoid
non-essential foreign travel.

Local
military authorities have been asked to exercise control to avoid or postpone
non-essential public gatherings, the second official said. The advisory has
asked military hospitals to establish isolation wards and have separate
out-patient departments for screening of symptomatic cases to prevent avoidable
transmission.

These
hospitals will work in synergy with local civil medical authorities and
designated Indian Council of Medical Research laboratories. Also, regular
health education and counselling activities will be carried out at all military
stations.

The
multi-nation naval drills were to be staged off the Vishakhapatnam coast from
March 18 to 28. The Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses
deferred a key security conference scheduled for next week due to the Covid 19
scare that was scheduled to take place in New Delhi on March 12-13.