11 positive coronavirus cases in UP; educational institutions to remain closed till Mar 22: Adityanath

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday ordered all schools, colleges, technical and vocational education institutes to remain closed till March 22 after 11 people tested positive for coronavirus in the State.

Addressing a press conference here, Adityanath said: "A total of 11 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the State. Out of these, seven are from Agra, two from Ghaziabad and one each from Noida and Lucknow. All these patients have been admitted to different hospitals and they are being treated."

"All schools, colleges, technical and vocational education institutes will remain closed till March 22. We will review the situation on March 22 and decide whether to extend it or not. The ongoing examinations will continue but the examinations which have not commenced yet have been postponed."

Commenting upon the preparedness of the State government, he said: "There is no need to panic. Today we held a high-level meeting. We have issued an advisory and asked people to take necessary precautions. 4100 physicians have been trained in the Training of Health Department's Paramedical Medical Department. We have created isolation wards in all 75 districts, 820 beds are already reserved for coronavirus suspects. 448 beds in 24 medical colleges have also been reserved."

"Central government has also arranged a sample checking facility at three places in the State. In Lucknow, there are two - King George's Medical University (KGMU) and Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI), and one in Aligarh. Like the National Institute of Virology (NIV) Pune, We have developed a facility to check the samples of coronavirus suspects at Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College, Gorakhpur. We are planning to develop five more centers to provide the facility of sample checking."

Earlier, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak a 'pandemic'.

Coronavirus, which originated in China's Wuhan city, has so far spread to more than 100 countries infecting over 1,20,000 people. India has confirmed 75 cases of the infection.