The first person to test positive for the novel coronavirus in India has been discharged from a government hospital in Thrissur, Kerala on Thursday, reported The Hindu. The medical student is the last of the three patients, who had contracted COVID-19 in Kerala, to be discharged.
The board at the Government Medical College in Thrissur decided to discharge the patient on Thursday morning in consultation with the state control cell. However, she will remain under surveillance at home for a few more days.
An official statement from the COVID-19 Outbreak and Prevention State Cell said the student was discharged after two consecutive tests were negative. The student’s test samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune. A patient who had tested positive for coronavirus may be discharged if two consecutive test samples within a 24-hour gap are negative, and if the chest X-ray is clear as per the clinical protocol in the state.
The woman, a medical student in China’s Wuhan city – the epicentre of the outbreak – had returned to her home in India on January 24. She was soon admitted to a Thrissur hospital after developing mild flu symptoms. After she tested positive for coronavirus on January 30, the woman was moved to the Thrissur Medical College.
“The health condition of the third patient at Thrissur Medical College Hospital is satisfactory,” Kerala’s Health Minister KK Shailaja had said in a briefing on Wednesday, according to PTI. “The second consecutive test result of the blood sample of the student, sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune, has returned negative.” The state health department said a total of 2,242 people are under observation in Kerala. Out of these, eight have been kept in isolation wards of several hospitals and the remaining are under home isolation.
Another medical student from Kasargod, who was quarantined for 18 days, was discharged on February 17. She was to be, however, kept under home isolation for 10 days after discharge. The third medical student, who had tested positive for the virus, from Alappuzha, was released on February 13.
The virus is believed to have originated in a live seafood market in Wuhan. Cases in China reversed its declining trend on Friday with 899 new cases and 118 more deaths, a day after the number of infections plunged to its lowest in weeks reported South China Morning Post. The virus has claimed over 2,000 lives in mainland China with a total of 76,716 cases worldwide.
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