mumbai

Updated: Feb 09, 2020 12:59 IST

Two medical students have been quarantined at the civic-run Kasturba Gandhi Hospital on Saturday, following their return on January 25 from Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak.

The hospital has sent their samples for analysis to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune. The students, both aged 24, will be kept in isolation until they test negative.

Although the students did not show any symptoms, which are usually visible in patients suffering from the new strain of coronavirus (nCoV), they have been kept in isolation as a precautionary measure, in line with the new rules of the state government.

On February 4, HT had reported that a new rule by the state health department makes it mandatory to quarantine all travellers from Wuhan.

After the new rules were announced, health officials tracked the two students to inquire about their travel history and later admitted them in isolation wards.

“As the two were studying in Wuhan, which has reported the highest number of coronavirus cases, we have kept them under observation. They don’t have any symptoms and so the step is taken as a precautionary measure,” said Suresh Kakani, assistant commissioner (health), BMC.

All the nine suspected coronavirus patients from the city who had been quarantined at the hospital earlier were discharged after they tested negative for the strain.

Those diagnosed with nCoV suffer from fever, cough, shortness of breath, muscle ache, headache, chest pain, diarrhoea and nausea. There is no vaccination to prevent nCoV and patients are given symptomatic treatment with antibiotics.