Thrissur (Kerala): Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja said that the female medical college student from Wuhan University, who was tested positive for the deadly coronavirus, has been shifted to Thrissur Medical College from the general hospital. She added that the patient is stable.

India reported its first case of the novel Coronavirus (nCoV) in Kerala on Thursday, prompting state government to step up its efforts to detect and prevent the spread of the virus that has killed at least 213 people and infected more that 9,692 in China.

The Centre will evacuate Indians on Friday from China's Wuhan city, the epicentre of the deadly virus, which has spread to at least 17 countries already.

Shailaja held a high-level meeting at the medical college hospital here on Thursday midnight to take stock of the situation.

The health minister, who met the media after the meeting, said an awareness campaign would be launched among people to identify the possible infection and that the health department had alerted all district authorities.

Kerala ministers hailing from the district — A C Moideen, C Raveendranath and V S Sunil Kumar — also participated in the meeting along with senior officials of the health department. The health minister said a meeting with representatives of private hospitals have been convened at 11 am on January 31.

"We need to create awareness among the people. Strong action will be taken in case anyone attempts to spread any fake news. We will hold high-level meetings every day and issue medical bulletin with updates," the minister said.

The medical college here has been upgraded with a special isolation ward with full facilities to treat at least 24 patients at a time.

At least, 1,053 people are under observation in the state as the Left Democratic Front government scrambled for tackling the emergency. "Of the four students who returned from China, one of them has been tested positive. We have taken all precautionary measures and there was no need to panic," Shailaja had said earlier.