Fourth person quarantined at Mumbai for suspected coronavirus symptoms

    27-Jan-2020

Fourth person quarantined
Mumbai, Jan 27 
A 36-year-old resident of Tardeo, who had visited China recently, was quarantined at Mumbai’s Kasturba Gandhi Hospital on Sunday after he developed cold and fever, symptoms of the coronavirus. He is the fourth person in Mumbai to be quarantined in the hospital’s isolation ward.
The man had travelled to China on January 3, 2020, and returned on January 11, 2020 through Hong Kong. During his stay, he visited Shanghai and Guangzhou which is almost 1,000 km away from Wuhan city, which has reported highest number of cases. Though he did not have any symptoms when he returned, he was observed by health workers through the telephone. On Sunday night, when he complained of fever, he was immediately rushed to the isolation ward at the hospital.
“The patient has fever for the last five days. So, we decided to keep him under observation as a precaution. But he hasn’t travelled to affected provinces so, we believe it’s just a case of viral fever,” said Dr Padmaja Keskar, executive health officer, Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
His medical sample has been sent to National Institute of Virology for analysis. However, the report of the third suspected patient has come negative of the new strain of the coronavirus - nCOV.
A 61-year-old resident of Nalasopara was the third patient to be quarantined at the hospital for observation. He returned from Hong Kong on January 9 and developed cold and fever. Even though, Hong Kong hasn’t reported any confirmed case of coronavirus, the health officials kept him under observation as a precautionary measure.
“We haven’t got the report in hand which requires a series of formalities but the institute informed us on Sunday that the third report has also been found negative. These reports would also be submitted to the Central Health Department for their observation,” said Dr Padmaja Keskar, Executive Health Officer, BMC.
BMC has kept another three people on observation through telephonic follow up who landed in Mumbai on Sunday after visiting China.
But as they didn’t exhibit any symptoms like the three suspected quatentined patients, they have been kept on telephonic observation.
“Our health officials would follow up with them to check if they develop any symptoms of coronavirus. This is done as a precautionary measure,” added Dr Keskar.
One of the two admitted on Thursday is a 31-year-old marketing professional from Nalasopara, who had complained of body ache and cold two days after returning to Mumbai from Foshan, China, on January 21. Although she did not have any symptoms when she landed, she was in touch with public health officials on the telephone. On January 23, when she developed symptoms, she was moved to the Kasturba Gandhi Hospital.
The other patient at the facility was a 36-year-old man from Kalyan, an information technology professional, who had travelled to Guangzhou in China on January 16, when he already had cold and fever. He had been in contact with Indian public health officials over the phone.
Hindustan Times