Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Bharati Pravin Pawar has reviewed steps taken for containment of Nipah virus outbreak in Kozhikode from the Indian Council of Medical Research – National Institute of Virology (ICMR-NIV), in Pune.
After undertaking the review, Pawar said the government is monitoring the situation and necessary steps for prevention of spread are being taken. High level teams from the Centre and ICMR-NIV with mobile units equipped with BSL-3 laboratories have already reached Kozhikode and will be doing on-ground testing.
Multi-disciplinary team
She also declared that the affected gram panchayats in the Kozhikode area have been declared as quarantine zones. A multi-disciplinary team led by Mala Chhabra has been deputed by Union Health Ministry to support the State in public health measures to deal with this outbreak.
The Union Minister assured that that the Health Ministry and the ICMR-NIV is monitoring the issue on a daily basis and all possible arrangements are being made by the central government to deal with the viral outbreak.