Passengers, colleagues rush to be tested after Hyderabad man tests positive for COVID-19

The Karnataka government on Tuesday said it has taken all required precautionary measures to control the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the state and requested people not to panic Health Minister B Sriramulu convened a meeting of top officials of his department following information that the man, who tested positive for the virus in Telangana, had travelled from the city A Health Department official said the man, who was working in Bengaluru, had travelled to Secunderabad on the night of 21 February in a private bus “All the passengers (of the bus) and (his) colleagues have been contacted and are under house-quarantine,” the official said, adding, passengers who were with him on the flight from Dubai are also being contacted. Also, people who worked with the techie have been asked to work from home. [caption id=“attachment_8113221” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] An Indian woman who recently returned from the United States being examined by doctors at a novel coronavirus help desk, at a hospital in Hyderabad, Tuesday, March 3, 2020. Image credit: PTI [/caption] “I appeal to people not to fear or panic. The government, the health and family welfare department and medical education department has taken all precautionary measures,” Sriramulu told reporters here “We have taken precautionary measures at ports, airports and also conducting blood, required tests on people and tourists coming from other places,” he said According to the minister, till now 39,391 foreign travellers have been screened and blood samples of 245 people collected Tests were conducted on 240 people and their result has come out as negative, he said, adding that report of two more was awaited, and “unofficially we have come to know they are also negative.” The condition of the 24-year-old man, who tested positive for the virus, was stable and he was being treated in an isolated ward at the state-run Gandhi hospital in Hyderabad, the Telangana government had said on Monday The man, a software engineer who works here, had been to Dubai last month on an official visit, where he is suspected to have contracted the virus The minister said, according to the information received, the IT employee working in Bengaluru had gone to Dubai on February 16. When he was tested on his return at the airport here, the result was negative, the minister said The man then travelled from Bengaluru to Hyderabad by bus after staying here for a couple of days. He had fever thereafter, contacted doctors there and tested positive for the infection, Sriramulu said About 23 people, who travelled with him, and his roommates have been screened and tests are being conducted as precautionary measure, according to sources There were 92 flats in the apartment in which he was staying and tests and precautionary measures are being taken regarding all of them, the minister said To a question about the company where he worked, Medical education minister K Sudhakar said the firm has been informed and it will ask their employees to work from home Meanwhile, budget carrier IndiGo in a statement said, four crew members, who were with the virus-infected passenger on the 20 February Dubai-Bengaluru flight, were under observation at home since 2 March Stating that two labs have been set up by the department for blood and other related tests, Sriramulu asserted that the health and family welfare and medical education departments have taken precautionary measures The minister said 630 beds have been kept ready in government hospitals while 1,689 in private hospitals to serve the purpose of isolation wards Citing five confirmed cases of the virus in the country so far, three from Kerala and the latest-one each in Delhi and Telangana, he said his department was taking all precautionary measures and will work round the clock to prevent the disease from entering the state All three Kerala patients were discharged from hospitals last month following recovery.