Six more persons, all civilians, have tested positive for the Zika virus in the Chakeri area of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

The total number of Zika virus cases in the city has now touched 10.

A report by King George's Medical University (KGMU) lab of Lucknow on Sunday, 31 October, has found Zika virus infection in four women, including one pregnant woman and two men.

Kanpur District Magistrate, Vishak G. Iyer, along with a team of Health and Civic departments rushed to the spot to take stock of the area.

Their samples have been sent to KGMU lab in Lucknow and National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune.

G.S Bajpai, Uttar Pradesh's Communicable Diseases department Director, said a special ward has been set up in Kanshi Ram hospital where Zika virus patients from Lucknow have been admitted. Patients in the ward have been placed inside mosquito nets.

All six patients have been kept in home quarantine and their treatment has started, he added.

"All patients are asymptomatic. Their families have also been advised to stay at home till the investigation report comes. Around 400 houses have been made a containment area around the houses of the infected persons. Continuous spraying of fogging and anti-larva is being done. The isolation of the family members will end once their cross test declares them negative," Singh said.

On Saturday,30 October, three more persons, including two Air Force staffers, were found infected with Zika virus.

After detection of the first infected case on October 23, the Centre had dispatched a high-level multi-disciplinary team comprising an entomologist, public health specialists and gynaecologist from the National Vector-Borne Disease Control Programme, National Centre for Disease Control and Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.

According to government spokesman, the state Health department has been carrying out the extensive exercise of mass-scale sanitisation, state-wide surveillance drives, spraying of anti-larva chemicals, fogging and cleanliness drives. The Health workers have been conducting door-to-door visits to identify patients with viral fever, vector-borne diseases and with other symptoms.

(This story was published from a syndicated feed. Only the headline and picture has been edited by FIT.)