Coronavirus: An isolation ward has been created at Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad.
The Karnataka government held an emergency meeting today, a day after a young software engineer who works in Bengaluru was tested positive for coronavirus in Hyderabad. The man is among the two new cases of the deadly virus that has infected more than 88,000 people across the globe and killed over 3,000. All those who came in contact with the techie in Bengaluru are being monitored, the Karnataka Health Minister said. The second coronavirus case is of a 45-year-old man in Delhi. The government said both the patients are stable and that they are being closely monitored. The Telangana health department has issued an advisory to all educational institutes.
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The first confirmed case of novel coronavirus in Telangana was reported from Hyderabad on Monday in a 24-year-old software engineer. The man, who works in Bengaluru, had worked with people from Hong Kong in Dubai last month where he is suspected to have contracted the virus, Telangana Health Minister E Rajender said.
The man reached Bengaluru on February 19 or 20 and later went to Hyderabad by bus. He was being treated for fever in Hyderabad and was admitted to a private super speciality hospital in the city. As it did not subside, he came to the state-run Gandhi hospital on Sunday evening where he was diagnosed with coronavirus, Mr Rajender said.
Because he was in Bengaluru, most of his close aides and neighbours are being monitored for their health condition to know their health status. "All the members in the house where he (the software engineer) had stayed here have been identified and are under watch," Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu tweeted late Monday night. "All precautionary measures are being taken. Tests are also being conducted for the people who are coming back to the state from other countries. Till now, all test results have been negative. There is no need to panic," Mr Sriramulu said today.
The patient in Delhi has a travel history from Italy, the centre said on Monday. Italy is among the countries that have emerged as a major spawning ground for the novel coronavirus. According to sources, the infected passenger was not screened at the Delhi airport because he flew in from Austria's Vienna where the outbreak has not been declared serious. Karnataka Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar told NDTV that the techie was screened but had no symptoms and thus he went to work. He later took a bus to Hyderabad. "We have quarantined and isolated all the co-passengers and co-workers. They are all in their homes. He was staying with one colleague and he has also been quarantined and we are closely watching him. We have tested, no positive cases yet," he said. A close watch will be kept on them for 28 days, he added.
The crew of an Air India February 25 Vienna-Delhi in which the person from Delhi flew have been asked to stay in isolation at their homes for 14 days. It's not yet clear if a similar advisory has been issued to the passengers.
A private school in Noida where the Delhi man's children study will be shut for three days - from Wednesday to Friday - after he came in contact with five families (that included students from the school) during a birthday party he hosted in Agra for one of his children last Friday. Six people among them have reported fever and their samples are being sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune for testing.
An Italian tourist in Jaipur is also suspected to have been infected after he tested positive in the second examination. His samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune for a final confirmation due to variations in two of his test results. He was part of a group of 23 Italian tourists who landed in Delhi and travelled to Rajasthan last month. The rest of the group has left for Agra and are expected to fly out to Italy from Delhi today.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, who held a high-level meeting on Monday, advised people to avoid non-essential travel to Iran, Italy, South Korea and Singapore and said India was in discussions with authorities in Iran and Italy, two countries badly affected by the infection, to evacuate Indians there.
Authorities are screening travellers arriving from Kathmandu, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Iran, Italy, Thailand, South Korea, Singapore and Japan at 21 designated airports in the country for a possible exposure to the virus, Mr Harsh Vardhan said, adding a total of 5,57,431 passengers have been screened at airports and 12,431 at major and minor seaports so far.
The global death count from the outbreak has crossed 3,000 and cases soared around the world with six deaths in the United States. The deadly virus, first detected in China in December last year, has spread to more than 60 countries and infected more than 88,000 people.
(With inputs from PTI and ANI)
