Coronavirus: Suspected case in Rajasthan kept in isolation ward, family to be screened

A suspected case of coronavirus has been reported in Rajasthan after the suspected patient returned to India after completing the MBBS course in China. State Health Minister Raghu Sharma has directed the SMS Medical College where the patient is admitted at present, to shift the patient to an isolation ward. The Health Minister has also directed the Medical College administration to conduct a screening of the family members too.

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Directions have also been issued to send the samples collected from the patient to Pune's National Virology Laboratory.

"According to the information received, 18 persons in four districts of the state have returned from China. The Chief Medical and Health Officers of the four districts have been instructed to keep all of them under constant monitoring for 28 days," said Sharma as quoted by ANI.

The Health Minister has also urged the Central Government to conduct a full screening of suspected persons arriving from international airports.

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India has intensified measures to check passengers for coronavirus. The Civil Aviation Ministry has directed seven international airports including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata to make arrangements for the screening of passengers arriving from China in the wake of the outbreak.

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Death toll reaches to 80, over 2700 infected

The outbreak of Coronavirus in the city of Wuhan has killed as many as 80 people in China and over 2700 cases of people infected by the virus has been  reported. The outbreak of the virus at a time when the nation celebrates Lunar New Year has created an atmosphere of fear. The Chinese government has imposed travel restrictions on a number of cities in Hubei province and people have been asked to wear face masks in public places. 

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'Emergency in China'

Though the World Health Organization (WHO) has not yet classified the virus as an international emergency considering the low number of overseas cases, however, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called it 'an emergency in China'.

According to the WHO, symptoms of Coronavirus may include runny nose, headache, cough, sore throat and fever. In more severe cases, it may lead to pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death. Experts and researchers are yet to understand the destructive potential of the new virus and have yet not found a cure for the same.