Coronavirus: Centre urged to provide kits to conduct tests in Hyderabad

The Telangana government has urged the Centre to provide requisite medical kits for conducting tests for coronavirus in Hyderabad itself in case its severity increases and there is a possibility of it spreading to the state also.

The samples are presently being sent to the National Institute of Virology at Pune. The state government is taking all precautionary measures, state Health Minister E Rajender said on Wednesday.

"We urge the Centre, in case the severity (of the virus) increases and if there is a possibility of it spreading in our region also, that we can conduct the tests (for determination of virus) here itself..instead of sending it to Pune,if you can provide the concerned kits to us," he told reporters. He said the Institute of Preventive Medicine (IPM) and two government hospitals in the city are equipped with latest lab facilities and felt that it would be possible to conduct the tests for nCov determination.

Diagnostic tests for swine flu and other viruses are already being conducted in the city, he said. There has been no positive case of nCov so far in the country, according to him.

Passengers are being screened at the international airport in Hyderabad as part of precautionary measures, he said. Isolated special wards have been set up in three government hospitals in the city, the minister said, adding 100 beds have been readied in the three hospitals and the number of beds can be increased further.

The government is also looking at ways to help students from the state, who are said to be pursuing medicine in China, in coordination with the Centre, he said. According to official sources, two samples have tested negative so far, while results are awaited for three samples. Sources said on Monday three people, who had travelled to China but did not have nCov symptoms, were under medical authorities' observation. The three had approached authorities in view of spread of the virus in China and were admitted to the state-run Institute of Tropical Diseases (Fever hospital) in the city. However, two of them have since been discharged after being advised to stay put at home, they had said. The sources also said two samples sent earlier had tested negative.