THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A Chinese youth, who is on a trip to India, was quarantined at the General Hospital in

following the intervention of police. The 27-year-old from Sichuan province, around 1,300km from Wuhan, the epicentre of

outbreak, had arrived in

on Tuesday afternoon.

He was admitted to the isolation ward of the hospital after he approached the city police commissioner’s office seeking help after hotels refused him entry as he could not furnish any health documents clearing him. According to sources in the commissioner’s office, the youth had set off from his country for a solo trip in the last week of December, before the novel coronavirus outbreak was reported.

was his first destination. From there, he reached Delhi on January 22. After spending a few days there, he reached Bengaluru and from there he arrived in the city by flight on Tuesday afternoon.

“I was not in the office when he turned up. However, the officers acted responsibly, alerting hospital authorities to quickly shift him to the isolation ward for observation,’’ said city commissioner Balram Kumar Upadhyay.

Police said as per his visa, he is eligible to stay in India till April. They are in the dark about how a foreigner, that too a Chinese national, could exit the airport despite health desks functioning there to screen passengers.