Two COVID-19 cases confirmed in Delhi and Telangana, both patients stable; virus claims over 3,000 lives globally

The condition of the first coronavirus patient from Telangana, who was among the two who tested positive on Monday, was stable, said Telangana health minister E Rajender.

The patient from Telangana was identified as a 24-year-old software engineer who works in Bengaluru, Rajender said on Monday evening. The patient is suspected to have caught the virus during a trip to Dubai, where he reportedly worked with some persons from Hong Kong, PTI quoted Rajender as saying.

The man reached Bengaluru on 19/20 February  and later came to Hyderabad in a bus. He took treatment for fever after coming to Hyderabad and was admitted to a private super- specialty hospital in the city. As the fever did not subside, he came to the state-run Gandhi hospital on Sunday evening, Rajender said.

The health minister said that the man is being treated in an isolated ward at the Gandhi hospital and his condition was stable.

Talking about the precautions taken in light of the case , Rajender said that the state government would follow the guidelines issued by the Centre.  He further stated that the state government was tracking all those who came in contact with the patient, including his family, those who traveled with him in the bus and the medical staff in the private hospital where he was treated.

The state government has informed its counterparts in Karnataka about the present case, he said, adding that arrangements were being made to ensure that the virus does not spread.

Rajender hoped that the man would be cured as it happened in the case of Indians who previously tested positive for the virus.

The last three coronavirus cases reported in India were from Kerala, the last one being confirmed on 6 February. All three patients are students who had returned from China’s Wuhan and were discharged last month.

Earlier in the day, the health ministry had said that two positive cases of coronavirus — one in Delhi and one in Telanagana — were reported in the country. The infected person from Delhi recently travelled to Italy.

Addressing a press conference, health minister Harsh Vardhan had said that people coming in from 12 countries are being screened, even as the government readies to activate 19 testing centres. The minister said that screening of passengers for COVID-19 is being conducted at 21 airports, 12 major seaports, and 65 minor seaports.

The minister said that 5,57,431 passengers have been screened so far at airports and 12,431 passengers have been screened on minor and major seaports. He added that non-essential travel to China, Iran, Korea, Singapore, and Italy should be avoided.

Under the travel advisory, existing visas, including e-visas, will remain suspended for China and Iran, he told reporters. Earlier, the Bureau of Immigration mandated that those travelling from Iran and South Korea will not be granted visa on arrival. Vardhan added that travel restrictions may be extended to other countries in future.

Coronavirus deaths have crossed the 3,000-mark globally, with China alone reporting 2,912 of these casualties. The virus has spread to seven countries, infecting over 88,000 people.

Meanwhile, around 85 Indian students stranded for a week in the university town of Pavia in north Italy’s Lombardy region, which has reported 17 coronavirus deaths over the past few days, have sought evacuation at the earliest.

Seventy-six Indians and 36 foreigners were taken to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force quarantine centre in Delhi’s Chhawla area on 27 February after they were flown in from Wuhan city on an Indian Air Force transport plane. On Saturday, all the 112 people were tested negative for coronavirus after the first set of samples was tested. “The second samples of the inmates will be taken on the fourteenth day of the quarantine period and all those whose results are negative will be released from the ITBP centre,” an ITBP spokesperson added.

India had evacuated around 650 Indians from Wuhan on board two Air India flights early in February, who were kept at the same ITBP facility and one prepared by the Army in Manesar. All these people were later found negative for the virus and they were allowed to go home after over a fortnight of quarantine.

In Italy, a sharp increase in cases has been reported, with coronavirus claiming 34 lives. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates said it would indefinitely shut down all nurseries across the country, home to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, beginning Sunday. This decision came after Qatar reported its first coronavirus case.

With inputs from agencies