First Coronavirus case in India, student in Kerala tests positive says Centre

The student came to India from Wuhan.

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The Union Health Ministry on Thursday confirmed that a student in Kerala has contracted Coronavirus. Unconfirmed reports on Malayalam channels says that a student who returned from China is the one confirmed of having coronavirus. The Kerala government has confirmed the case and state Health Minister KK Shailaja is expected to address a press conference at 3 pm on the same.

“One positive case of Novel Coronavirus patient, of a student studying in Wuhan University, has been reported in Kerala. The patient has tested positive for Novel Coronavirus and is in isolation in the hospital. The patient is stable and is being closely monitored,” the government release stated.

Health officials from the state of Kerala also confirmed on Thursday that one person had tested positive for the new strain of Coronavirus (nCoV). The National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune, where the samples were sent, confirmed the presence of the virus.

“There was a conference call between officials at the Centre and all states on Thursday morning. We had sent 20 samples, of which 10 samples turned out to be negative. One result has turned out to be positive,” Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja said.

The Health Minister said that the student who has tested positive was one among four students who had been kept in isolation at the Thrissur General Hospital. Six more people are in isolation wards in other hospitals in Kerala.

KK Shailaja also said that Kerala had been vigilant and has already placed 806 individuals under home quarantine at home, and will take stringent measures now. She also reminded that contact tracing was important. "We have told everyone who has come back from China to be in home quarantine. We have told them not to go to public places for sometime. Even during the Nipah outbreak, the only reason we could contain it was because we did stringent contact tracing and placed people in quarantines,” she said.

Earlier, it was reported that 806 people in Kerala were kept under home isolation and another 10 were being monitored in isolation wards in hospitals. It’s been reported that over 500 Indian students, many of whom are from Telangana and Kerala, are studying in colleges and universities in Wuhan, though a large number had departed prior to the outbreak due to Lunar New Year celebrations. Earlier this week, the government announced that it was preparing to evacuate Indian citizens stranded in Wuhan city, in the Hubei Province of China, the epicentre of the novel Coronavirus outbreak. Those arriving in India from Wuhan are required to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine on arrival in the country.

(This is a developing story)