A 29-year-old-woman from Bihar’s Chapra district was admitted to Patna Medical College and Hospital on Monday morning for suspected Wuhan coronavirus infection, The New Indian Express reported. Ekta Kumari had returned from China on January 22. She arrived at Kolkata airport and then proceeded to Chapra, where her family lives.
“She is reportedly speaking well and has not panicked over the situation but wanted to get proper medical care,” an unidentified doctor at the hospital said. Kumari was doing research project in China’s Tianjin University, which is in the northeastern part of China. She left the country just as the coronavirus outbreak started.
Bihar Principal Secretary (Health) Sanjay Kumar said Kumari had complained of mild fever during her train journey from Kolkata to Chapra. He said she was suspected of carrying the infection, but it has not yet been confirmed. Kumar said he has asked airports in Bihar to take all preventive measures, including thermal screening of passengers.
Kumar added that the health department has deputed doctors in seven districts bordering Nepal.
Meanwhile, a 36-year-old man has been admitted to the isolation ward at Mumbai’s Kasturba Hospital for possible exposure to the virus, officials said on Monday. Last week, three persons were admitted in the hospital. Two of the three persons had tested negative for the virus. The results of the third individual are not known yet.
Another suspected case was reported in Rajasthan. Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma on Sunday said a doctor who recently returned from China was suspected of having contracted the coronavirus. He has been kept in isolation at the SMS Hospital in Jaipur, PTI reported. Sharma said the doctor had returned to India after completing an MBBS course in China. He added that directions had been issued to screen the patient’s family members. He added that a blood sample of the patient had been sent to the National Virology Laboratory in Pune.
The Rajasthan minister said 18 people from four districts of the state had returned to the country from China. District chiefs and medical officers have been ordered to keep them under supervision for 28 days.
Sharma also urged Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan to make the screening facility available at international terminals of various airports in the country. So far, screening facilities have been made available at seven airports – Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Kochi.
A man who was admitted to a hospital in Bengaluru in Karnataka after showing symptoms of cold and cough tested negative for the virus, reported The Indian Express. He had recently returned from Wuhan, which is the epicentre of the outbreak.
“The patient is kept under observation in an isolation ward for now and will be discharged soon,” said said Dr Prakash, the joint director of communicable diseases at Karnataka Department of Health and Family Welfare. “The samples of his throat swab, which were sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune, tested negative.”
Four Chinese and two Indians, who had arrived in Bengaluru from Beijing and Wuhan, have also been kept in isolation at their hotels and homes. None of them, however, have shown any symptom. “This will go on for the next 28 days,” said Prakash. “There is no reason for the public to panic, as we are taking necessary precautions.”
Four people have been put under observation at Government Fever Hospital in Hyderabad, reported ANI. They had recently returned from China. “We’ve put them in isolation ward,” said a doctor. “No symptoms like fever, throat pain or breathing problem have been found.”
The coronavirus has so far spread to the United States, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Australia, France, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Nepal, Singapore and Canada. The virus has so far killed 80 people in China, and infected over 2,700. Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, has been placed in a lockdown. Indians in Hubei province have been asked to inform the embassy in Beijing if they face shortage of food, water and other essential supplies.
In India, nearly 200 people have been kept under observation in Kerala and Maharashtra, following screening for possible exposure to the virus. The Prime Minister’s Office on Saturday reviewed India’s preparedness to deal with the situation. India has also requested China to permit over 250 Indian students stuck in Wuhan to leave the city.
Gao Fu, the director-general of China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Sunday that Indian authorities should “swiftly separate” from their families students who have returned to the country from China and exhibit symptoms of the illness.
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