India yesterday reported its first confirmed case of novel coronavirus in Thrissur district of Kerala. The patient who was found positive is a student studying in Wuhan University of China and had returned to India in recent weeks.
A statement was released by the Press Information Bureau of India, “The patient has tested positive for novel coronavirus and is in isolation in the hospital. The patient is stable and is being closely monitored.”
The 2019-novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) epidemic started in China’s Wuhan city in early December last year and has claimed more than 170 lives in a matter of few days. But the worse part is that it has started to spread in other parts of the world.
Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja informed the press that 20 samples were sent for tests out of which one was found to be positive for novel coronavirus.
“The patient had returned from Wuhan in China and is now kept in isolation at General Hospital in Thrissur. She is stable,” the minister said, adding that the state government has already set up a control room.
“We have directed all hospitals, including private ones, to monitor patients coming with similar symptoms (of coronavirus). The health department is all set to isolate patients and start treatment,” Shailaja said.
Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said, “It is an unfortunate turn of events. One case is positive and we have one more test to do. We are taking adequate measures. We have dealt with an outbreak like this before. We have to take precautionary measures because it spreads from person to person.”
Apart from this WHO (World Health Organisation) has declared a health emergency taking coronavirus into consideration. The UN’s health arm said the move was to protect countries with “weaker health systems.” Meanwhile, WHO also said there was no reason for measures that unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade.
