Telangana health officials approach Kerala to study monitoring system to combat COVID-19

Amid the Coronavirus outbreak in India, a team of Telangana doctors and health officials approached Kerala to study the state's monitoring and surveillance system. As per reports, the team arrived in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday and met Kerala state health minister KK Shailaja. 

Further, the team also reportedly visited some of the hospitals and attended review meetings in the state. As per reports, teams from Odisha and Madhya Pradesh are also expected to arrive soon to study the system. India's first three positive cases of Coronavirus which were detected in Kerala, were discharged after being treated

Coronavirus cases rise in India 

According to reports, around 31 people have been tested positive for the deadly Coronavirus in India. According to the Health Minister, out of these 16 were Italian Nationals. They have been sent to Indo-Tibetan Border Police's (ITBP) quarantine facility in Chhawla. Following this, two more cases have come to light, including an employee of Paytm.

The infected persons also include six family members of the Delhi man who was infected with coronavirus who were also tested positive for the virus that has killed more than 3,000 people globally so far.

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Coronavirus outbreak

According to the latest reports, 53 new deaths in China due to coronavirus have been confirmed, taking the total death toll to over 3,000. While most of the cases are from the Hubei province of China and the city of Wuhan (the epicentre of the outbreak), other countries including Iran, Italy, Japan and the Philippines have also reported deaths related to novel coronavirus.

First detected in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei Province of China, the virus outbreak has now spread across 20 countries since December 2019. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has dubbed the virus as COVID-19. 

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UN releases fund

United Nations has released $15 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to help fund global efforts to contain the novel coronavirus COVID-19. UN Humanitarian Chief Mark Lowcock announced the release of the fund after the World Health Organisation (WHO) raised the alert to ‘very high’ - its top level of risk assessment. 

The UN funding has been released for the WHO and the UNICEF to help essential activities including monitoring the spread of the virus, investigating cases, and the operation of national laboratories. The WHO has called for $675 million in funding to combat the deadly virus. WHO Director-General said that the biggest concern is the countries with weaker health systems.

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