Med teams to monitor govt staff at Secretariat

The panic over the spread of coronavirus has had an impact on the airlines sector, with flights to Kuala Lumpur, Doha, Frankfurt, Kuwait, and Thailand being cancelled on Tuesday due to lack of passengers. Following the concerns over the infectious disease, a large number of people are refraining from travelling to foreign countries. Governments and public health experts across the world have been advising people to avoid unnecessary visits, especially to countries where COVID-19 cases have been reported. On Monday, the arrival and departure of 14 flights were cancelled. On Tuesday, the number of cancellations went up to 20. The arrival of Lufthansa Airlines flight from Frankfurt, Kuwait Airlines flight from Kuwait, Thai Airlines flight from Thailand, Indigo airlines flights from Doha and Kuwait, Saudi Airlines flight from Jeddah, SF Express flight from Shenzhen, and Malaysian Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur were cancelled.

The district administration here has requested the  State government to make the Vellore Government Medical College Hospital a testing centre for COVID-19, Collector A Shanmuga Sundaram said on Tuesday. Revealing this after inspecting spraying of Lysol on government buses and personally handing over pamphlets on how to safeguard oneself against the virus, he said the district administration’s request was based on the fact that Vellore attracted many foreign and other state visitors due to the presence of CMC hospital, VIT university and the Sripuram Golden temple. He said foreign students in VIT university had been advised against inviting their parents to visit them, as also CMC officials. Similarly, as those travelling to Tirupathi and those visiting the golden temple were from other states, efforts are on to ensure that vehicles were checked in 13 locations in the district, he added.