Both Indian patients stable, lens on 23 more
Two Covid-19 cases emerge in Delhi and HyderabadThe Hyderabad patient, a techie, had come into contact with at least 80 people, including 20 staff at the corporate hospital and 27 passengers on the bus
New Delhi/Hyderabad: Two new cases of Covid-19 infections were reported on Monday in India, one in New Delhi and the other in Hyderabad, and both remained undetected for days, risking public health. The person from Delhi, a 45-year-old man, returned last week from Italy, one of the countries hardest hit by the epidemic, a person directly aware of the situation said on condition of anonymity.
The second person, a 25-year-old man from Telangana, had travelled to Dubai. In both cases, the patients had declared to authorities themselves that they might have contracted the disease, said health secretary Preeti Sudan. Both of them are stable and are being closely monitored, the government said, adding that 23 more people are being tested for the virus. The man from Hyderabad, who works for a software company, went to Dubai for work, after which he reached Bengaluru on 20 February and then returned to Hyderabad on 22 February by bus.
After developing a fever, he consulted doctors, including those at a major corporate hospital, for about five days. He was eventually admitted to the state-run Gandhi hospital on Sunday. Telangana health minister Eatala Rajender told a press conference on Monday that samples taken from him were tested, and after cross- checking with the National Institute of Virology in Pune, he was confirmed as infected.
According to Rajender, the patient had come into contact with at least 80 people, including 20 staff at the corporate hospital and 27 passengers on the bus.
Details about the travel history of the second man from Delhi, who called a government healthline to report his illness, are yet to be ascertained.
“The process of detecting the contacts of these two patients is on. We are doing everything as meticulously as possible, even for the contacts," Sudan said.
The first test of at least 112 people, including nationals from Myanmar (2), Bangladesh (22), the Maldives (2), China (6), South Africa (1), the US (1) and Madagascar (1) from Wuhan, who were evacuated and kept at the Indo-Tibetan Border Police camp at Chhawla inNew Delhi, were found to be negative, health minister Harsh Vardhan said.
“A total of 124 people were brought back from Japan through Air India flight on 27 February morning, including five foreign nationals. They have also tested negative and are kept in the Army facility at Manesar (Haryana)," he said.
Taking preventive measures, more than 3,695 gram sabha meetings have been held in 21 border districts of five states—Uttarakhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Sikkim.
As of now, more than one million people have been screened at the Nepal border, according to the central government.
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