With Kerala reporting its second case of novel coronavirus, the state is focusing on increasing arrangements at hospitals and setting up more isolation wards.
A total of 1,999 people who had travelled to China and other affected countries are under observation in the state.
While most people are under home quarantine, 75 are in isolation wards in different hospitals, the state health ministry’s medical bulletin said.
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Health Minister KK Shailaja has asked people quarantined at home to not go out without informing the health department. “Though 14 days is the incubation period, to ensure more safety, we have asked people to be in quarantine for 28 days,” she said, The NewsMinute quoted.
“If any functions like weddings are fixed in the families of such persons, such programs should be postponed without any excuse. There is no great loss in postponing a wedding, but hundreds of people come for functions like this. We are a densely populated state and if the disease spreads, it will become tough for us,” she said.
Kerala has also gotten to permission to test samples of the suspected Coronavirus cases at the National Institute of Virology in Alappuzha instead of NIV Pune, Shailaja said. This is expected to help process test results faster.
Officials on Sunday said that the condition of both the patients who tested positive for the virus in Kerala was ‘stable’ and not serious.
The second patient is also a student from Wuhan in China, the epicentre of the epidemic, and is currently admitted to the isolation ward at the Alapuzha Medical College Hospital. The patient had returned to Kerala on January 24, the state government said.
The country’s first novel coronavirus case was reported from Thrissur in Kerala on Thursday with a woman medical student who returned from Wuhan testing positive for the infection. She is under treatment in an isolation ward at the Thrissur medical college hospital.
“We are trying to ensure that the virus does not spread. The two patients, who have tested positive for the virus, are stable. Their condition is not serious. But we are monitoring them closely,” she said.
Since the coronavirus outbreak in China, Kerala, which is thickly populated, has been on high alert as a large number of students from the state are studying in the University of Wuhan.
The Kerala health minister said they had started the process to identify people who may have come in contact the two virus-infected patients.
She said police were helping in the process.
A meeting with officials of private hospitals in Thrissur was held and they have kept aside around 87 beds for isolation wards.
A similar exercise was required to be undertaken in Alappuzha in view of the need to arrange maximum number of beds (to meet contingencies), she said.
She said those who have returned from the virus-affected areas of China, besides Sri Lanka and Nepal, must inform the health department as they will have to be home quarantined for 28 days.
Of the people currently under observation, the maximum are from Malappuram (315), Kozhikode (291) and Ernakulam (260) districts.
Of the 75 in various hospitals, 22 are in Thrissur, nine each at Alappuzha and Ernakulam and eight at Malappuram. At least 12 people were admitted to hospitals across the state on Sunday.
The Coronavirus epidemic has killed 361 people and infected more than 17,000 in China and at least 171 overseas. There are more than 11,000 cases in Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, China’s state television said on Monday.
(With PTI inputs)