An Italian tourist in Jaipur has tested positive for novel Coranavirus, taking the total number of confirmed cases in India to six so far confirmed sources from the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday.
The first sample collected from the tourist on Saturday had tested negative, but his condition deteriorated following which a second sample was collected. The second sample returned positive for the coronavirus on Monday.
"Since there was a variation in the reports, samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune for testing," officials said.
Two new cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID 2019) were confirmed in India on Monday. A man from Delhi was confirmed to be positive for the infection on Monday. He gave a history of having recently traveled from Italy. The other man was a 24-year-old techie who had traveled to Bengaluru from Dubai on February 20. He had gone to his office on February 21 before returning to Hyderabad on February 22 via a bus.
On Monday, officials from the Union Health Ministry announced that two more positive cases had been detected. After this, officials from the health department in both Telangana and Karnataka have increased screening measures.
Speaking to the media at a press conference on Tuesday, Karnataka state Health Minister B Sriramulu stated that 25 people from the contact list were screened and quarantined at home. If anyone develops symptoms during the 14 day quarantine period, they will be shifted to a hospital. The minister also noted that the samples of individuals who had been in contact with the infected techie had returned negative so far.
Over 40,000 passengers have been screened at the Bengaluru International Airport alone. There have been over 80,000 cases of the disease reported worldwide with the death toll reaching 3000 over the past weekend.
(With PTI inputs)