Donita Jose By

Express News Service

HYDERABAD: A day ahead of the mandated 14-day isolation, the 25-year-old techie from Mahendra Hills, who was the first Coronavirus patient in Telangana, was discharged on Friday night. The patient was seen walking out of the Gandhi Hospital isolation ward on his own. He was taken home discreetly to avoid any interaction.Telangana Health Minister Eatala Rajender said that the youth is now in the pink of health.

Director of Public Health, G Srinivas Rao, stated that the patient had completed 14 days of treatment and that he would be under home isolation for another 14 days. The patient was admitted to the Gandhi Hospital on March 1 after he had tested positive for Coronavirus. He had a travel history to Dubai in February.

Meanwhile, Telangana State Rapid Response Team (RRT) surveillance team has identified 34 primary contacts in Hyderabad who had come in direct contact with the 76-year-old patient who died due to co-morbidity of several age-related complications and of COVID-19 virus.

These 34 contacts had been identified by the team immediately after the patient died on March 10 and was suspected to have Coronavirus. These persons are being monitored constantly and are in isolation at their homes.

According to G Srinivas, Director of Health, Government of Telangana, these 34 people are primarily from two private hospitals and the ambulance staff who transported the patient in the city. “The people were identified two days ago and have been asked to isolate themselves in their homes. They have no symptoms as of now of COVID-19,” he said.

He further stated that the cause of worry was minimum as the 76-year-old patient from Kalburgi was here for around 10 to 12 hours, when he had a brief interaction with staff and doctors, who had taken all necessary precautions.

One of the private hospitals, where the patient was rushed to, released a statement reiterating that they took all the precautions. "The patient visited our emergency unit on March 9 with temperature, cough and acute respiratory distress and left against medical advice at the insistence of family members. When he came, he was immediately shifted to an isolation room equipped with negative air pressure and HEPA air filters to prevent any further transmission," the hospital authorities had said.

They further said that they had worn personal protective equipment as per protocol and initiated necessary treatment to stabilise the patient.

The Rapid Response Team (RRT) is now actively monitoring the 34 primary contacts by calling them up twice a day and regular SMS alerts in order to keep track of any symptoms. The RRT has formed a State-level and district-level teams to monitor all the passengers returning from abroad and who are suspected Coronavirus cases.