Rajasthan awaits tourist's test report, Gehlot tells officials to follow coronavirus guidelines

As Rajasthan authorities awaited a crucial medical test report to confirm if an Italian visitor here has coronavirus, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot instructed health officials to strictly follow the Centre’s guidelines on containing the disease.

Gehlot chaired a high-level meeting on Monday night after a 69-year-old Italian tourist reported positive for coronavirus following a test conducted at Jaipur’s Sawai Man Singh Hospital.

An earlier test conducted at the same government hospital had, however, cleared the man of the virus.

Since the two reports were contradictory, the SMS Hospital sent another sample to the National Institute of Virology in Pune.

“The sample was dispatched from the SMS Hospital to Jaipur airport last evening but it could be sent to Pune in a cargo plane on Tuesday morning,” hospital superintendent Dr D S Meena said.

“The sample has been received at NIV, Pune and the report is likely to come this evening,” he said.

The man, part of a group of 20 tourists, is admitted at an isolation ward at the hospital. The other members of the group left for Agra and then New Delhi, according to officials.

Gehlot said the Health Department should ensure that there is no fear in the public about coronavirus.

There should be no shortage of facilities for screening and treating those suspected of carrying the virus, he instructed.

In a statement on Tuesday, he said those who came in contact with the Italian tourist should be screened after obtaining his travel history.

Those showing symptoms of the disease should be kept in Isolation at home or in hospital, he said.

The tourist arrived in Jaipur with his group February 28. He was taken to Fortis Hospital the same night, and then to the SMS Hospital the next day.

While the first test for swine flu and coronavirus cleared him of the two diseases, the second came out positive for coronavirus.

State government officials took part in a video conference on Tuesday with a top official from the Centre, Additional Chief Secretary (Medical and Health) Rohit Kumar Singh said.

At Monday night’s meeting with Gehlot, Health Minister Raghu Sharma, Chief Secretary D B Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary (Medical and Health) Rohit Kumar Singh, Medical Education Secretary Vaibhav Galaria, SMS Medical College principal Sudhir Bhandari and other senior doctors were present. 

Image Credits: PTI