Kota breathes easy as four isolated over Coronavirus fears test negative

Four persons, including a Sri Lankan tourist, isolated here over the suspicion of having coronavirus affliction, have been tested negative, said medical authorities on Friday. Besides the 48-year-old Sri Lankan tourist, the three others kept in isolation in MBS Hospital here to check if they have any symptom of Covid-19 afflictions, were Kota natives, including a couple, who returned from foreign trips.

Dr C P Meena, the incharge of a 16-room isolation ward at the MBS Hospital to screen the suspected COVID-19-hit cases, said he received telephonically the negative test reports of the four persons. The four, however, are are yet to be discharged from the isolation ward, he said, adding they would be discharged only after the hard copies of their test reports reach the isolation unit.

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Even after their discharge, the Kota residents would be asked to stay in isolation at their homes, said Dr Meena. Dr Meena, however, did not explain what would be the fate of Sri Lankan national after his discharge. The Sri Lankan tourist had been traced to a hotel in the city on Thursday and was put in the hospital's isolation ward for screening.

He had landed in Chennai on February 23 and reached Kota on Tuesday after visiting Jaipur, where he had stayed for a few days at his relative's house in Ghat Gate area, said the hospital's Chief Medical and Health Officer B S Tanwar. A 36-year-old Kota resident, who had returned to India from Malaysia on February 23, too was put in isolation at the hospital for screening on Thursday when he approached it with complaints of cold and cough, said Dr Tanwar.

A couple belonging to Kota, who had been on a trip to Thailand from February 16 to 23 and returned to the city on early Friday morning after travelling to Delhi and Ahmedabad, too was put in isolation for screening. All four suspects, however, have been tested negative, said Dr Meena.

The district's medical and health department, meanwhile, has stepped up measures to tackle the situation amid the inflow of foreign tourists ahead of the Holi and has turned 16 rooms of the hospital's cubical ward into an isolation unit for the screening of COVID-19-hit suspects.

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