Corona reaches Capital
45-year-old man visits Mayur Vihar doctor after returning from Italy, admitted to Safdarjung Hospital as test comes back positive; Hyderabad resident, back from Dubai, infected
NEW DELHI: The first case of coronavirus has been detected in Delhi, the government said on Monday, even as another case in Hyderabad took the number of reported infections in the country to five amid a global alarm over the outbreak that has rapidly spread from China to dozens of countries and claimed more than 3,000 lives.
The person from Delhi recently travelled to Italy, while the patient from Hyderabad has a travel history from Dubai, the health and family welfare ministry said. “Both the patients had self-reported after they developed symptoms. They tested positive. They are stable and being closelymonitored,”Unionhealth minister Harsh Vardhan said.
While reports quoted Rajasthan health minister Raghu Sharma as saying that an Italian tourist was found positive for the virus in Jaipur, the central government did not confirm the development.
The outbreak has expanded alarmingly since it began in December last year in China, where at least 80,000 people have now been infected and 2,915 have died. Outside China, infections have been confirmed in 54 countries, taking the total number of infected to at least 88,900. The virus is believed to have infected the first human in a seafood market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
India has stepped up preparedness in anticipation of cluster cases after the two fresh cases of the coronavirus, which has been named SARS-Cov-2,with the disease it causes being called Covid-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The two patients of the disease arrived in India without symptoms a few days ago and interacted unprotected with their families, friends, colleagues and commuters over the past week. Three people were previously diagnosed in Kerala with the disease, but they have been discharged from hospitals after recovering from the infection.
The patient in Delhi, a 45-yearold man, was shifted to a 50-bed quarantine ward at Safdarjung Hospital on Sunday night, by when he had no symptoms, according to a person employed at the hospital. Four people from his family who showed symptoms have also been quarantined and are being tested for the virus, the person said on condition of anonymity, adding that two others who came into contact with the man are likely to be quarantined.
“The two new cases were selfreported, with the Delhi patient going to a private practitioner in Mayur Vihar, who referred him to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, from where he was shifted to the Safdarjung Hospital. The Telangana case was tested at Gandhi Medical College in Hyderabad and has been quarantined there,” a health ministry official said.