The Centre has assured the countrymen that it is taking all possible steps to tackle the spread of novel coronavirus.

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan told this to media after holding review and coordination meeting on the management and preparation of tackling the spread of novel coronavirus. The meeting was attended by Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and officers of relevant ministries.

The Minister said that government is prepared to deal with novel coronavirus and his ministry is sending directives, including guidelines, to states in all the languages on ways to contain it. He also asked the states to strengthen laboratories and manpower to effectively deal with coronavirus and form early rapid response teams.

Dr Harsh Vardhan said, currently 46 labs are functioning and 56 labs have been developed as collection centres. He said, over eight lakh 74 thousand passengers have been screened at the airports so far. The Minister said, 11 lakh 50 thousands people were also screened at the bordering areas of the country.

Dr Vardhan stressed on the coordinated action between all concerned department and agencies for activities such as contact tracing, community surveillance, hospital management identification of isolation wards and risk communication for mass awareness. He said, due to the early steps and coordinated efforts, the government is in a position to control the spread of virus. He also asked the Lieutenant Governor and Chief Minister of Delhi to regularly monitoring the situation.

On the issue of shortage of masks, the Minister said, there is no need of masks for the healthy persons and only infected can wear it.

Talking to media, Chief Minister Kejriwal said, the good thing is that every State government is working in a coordinated manner to contain the spread of the virus. He also said, his government will take action against those involved in black-marketing of masks and sanitizers.