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The first positive case of novel coronavirus (nCoV) in India has been reported on Thursday.
The first case of India is said to be identified from Thrissur in Kerala and it has been identified that the patient who has been affected with the deadly coronavirus is a young woman who was studying medicine at a university in Wuhan which is a city in China and the epicenter for the coronavirus outbreak.
It has been identified that the student who has been confirmed as being infected by the coronavirus in Kerala, has travelled to Kolkata from Wuhan, China on 23rd of January and has travelled to Kochi the next day for her hometown in Thrissur. She herself has reached the nearest primary health center at Mathilakam and has informed the health official;s regarding her travel from the Chinese city of Wuhan.
She had been advised by the health care officials to remain home for 28 days with proper personal hygiene as no signs of symptoms have been recorded when she has visited the health center. She has also been given a contact number by the heath care center and she was asked to make a call if she observes any symptoms of flu.
The district Surveillance Officer has been contacted on 27th of January when the student has developed the symptoms of flu and was later moved to the isolation ward at the Thrissur General Hospital. The case has been confirmed positive on Thursday after the tests were conducted and the body fluid samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune.
The health minister of the state of Kerala K K Shailaja has said that the student was hospitalized after she had developed the symptoms of fever and sore throat. It is said that the patient has been quarantined along with four others in the isolation ward of a general hospital in Thrissur, Kerala.
The state health minister has added saying that the patient who has been confirmed of being affected by the deadly coronavirus is stable and that there is nothing to get worried about.
The five students who have come to India from the Chinese city of Wuhan have visited the hospital with their own will to get themselves tested. Among the five Indian students from Wuhan, three of them have been shifted to the Thrissur Medical College Hospital by the afternoon on Thursday and the tests are being conducted as a part of the health investigation for the coronavirus being affected.
The first case of coronavirus being affected in India has lead to the announcement that has been made by the government which says that all the people who have come to India from China after 15th of January will be tested for the coronavirus as the virus is said to be having an incubation period of 14 days. It has also advised that trips to China ought to be avoided and that a 14- day home isolation regimen has also been prescribed for the people who have come to India after January 15.
It has been said by the Dr. Priya Abraham who is the Director of the Indian Council of Medical Research- National Institute of Virology, Pune that the testing has been done for forty- nine samples and that one among them have been tested positive and another test which is known as next gen sequencing tests will be done on the sample and the result of the test will be declared by evening on Friday.
The emergency committee has been reconvened by the director- general of World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus regarding the novel coronavirus under the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005). the committee is said to be reconsidering the declaring of the outbreak of nCoV as a global public health emergency and the committee will also be advising the recommendations in order to manage the outbreak.
-Shrithika Kushangi
