Jharkhand puts hospitals on alert amid pneumonia outbreak in China

The Jharkhand government has put its hospitals on alert, asking them for surveillance, preventive measures and testing of respiratory illness cases in the backdrop of a mysterious pneumonia outbreak in China, officials said on Saturday.
In a letter to the district administrations, Additional Chief Secretary for Health Arun Kumar Singh directed them to remain prepared and keep a constant vigil on the situation.
“In view of the recently reported surge in respiratory illness, especially in children in Northern China, in the recent weeks, this is to bring to your kind notice that there is an urgent need to keep a constant vigil, monitor trends of cases and quickly respond to any emerging public health,” Singh said in the letter.
In view of the ongoing influenza, there might be an increase in respiratory illness cases, he said.
“This is predominantly attributed to usual causes like Influenza strain (H1N1/H3N2/H5N1/H9N2 etc.), mycoplasma pneumonia, SARS-CoV-2, etc,” Singh said.
“In orde