The first case of coronavirus has been detected in Delhi, the government said on Monday, even as another case in Hyderabad took the number of reported infections in the country to five amid a global alarm over the outbreak that has rapidly spread from China to dozens of countries and claimed more than 3,000 lives.
The person from Delhi recently travelled to Italy, while the patient from Hyderabad has a travel history from Dubai, the health and family welfare ministry said. “Both the patients had self-reported after they developed symptoms. They tested positive. They are stable and being closely monitored,” Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said.
While reports quoted Rajasthan health minister Raghu Sharma as saying that an Italian tourist was found positive for the virus in Jaipur, the central government did not confirm the development.
The outbreak has expanded alarmingly since it began in December last year in China, where at least 80,000 people have now been infected and 2,915 have died. Outside China, infections have been confirmed in 54 countries, taking the total number of infected to at least 88,900. The virus is believed to have infected the first human in a seafood market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
India has stepped up preparedness in anticipation of cluster cases after the two fresh cases of the coronavirus, which has been named SARS-Cov-2,with the disease it causes being called Covid-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The two patients of the disease arrived in India without symptoms a few days ago and interacted unprotected with their families, friends, colleagues and commuters over the past week. Three people were previously diagnosed in Kerala with the disease, but they have been discharged from hospitals after recovering from the infection.
The patient in Delhi, a 45-year-old man, was shifted to a 50-bed quarantine ward at Safdarjung Hospital on Sunday night, by when he had no symptoms, according to a person employed at the hospital. Four people from his family who showed symptoms have also been quarantined and are being tested for the virus, the person said on condition of anonymity, adding that two others who came into contact with the man are likely to be quarantined.
“The two new cases were self-reported, with the Delhi patient going to a private practitioner in Mayur Vihar, who referred him to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, from where he was shifted to the Safdarjung Hospital. The Telangana case was tested at Gandhi Medical College and Hospital in Hyderabad and has been quarantined there,” a health ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
Hospital staffers who treated the Delhi patient at RML Hospital have also been quarantined at home for 14 days, according to a person aware of the developments. “The private practitioner the Delhi case went to has been contacted, and asked not to examine patients and stay under home quarantine for two weeks. He has been asked to report Covid-19-related symptoms of fever, cough and difficulty breathing,” another government official said, asking not to be named.
After the Union health ministry’s announcement on Monday, the Air India crew that flew the Vienna-Delhi flight on February 25 on which the 45-year-old infected man was a passenger have been asked to quarantine themselves at home for 14 days.
The man in Hyderabad contacted the local Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) unit when he developed fever. “The list of people he has come into contact with since his return from Dubai is being compiled and these people are being traced within community. If any of them show symptoms, they will be isolated in a hospital, the rest will be asked to stay vigilant,” the ministry official said.
Briefing reporters about the fresh developments, Union health minister Vardhan said: “We are taking all possible measures to screen and contain. So far, 15 labs under ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) have been testing Covid-19. We have the capability to increase the network to 50 labs; we will make 19 other labs functional in the next two or three days.”
While there is currently no known effective antiviral therapy for Covid-19, many ongoing clinical trials are evaluating different therapeutic interventions globally, according to WHO.
Vardhan said 557,431 passengers have been screened at airports and 12,431 at major and minor seaports so far. As many as 25,738 people are under community surveillance across the country, the minister said, as he advised people to avoid non-essential travel to Iran, Italy, South Korea and Singapore.
Thirty-seven people across the country are currently hospitalised after showing symptoms of coronavirus. Vardhan said that so far, 3,217 samples have been tested, out of which five tested positive for Covid-19, while reports of 23 are awaited.
Following the two fresh cases of coronavirus, aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Monday issued an order that said passengers coming from Italy and Iran will also undergo thermal screening at airports. Other than Italy and Iran, India is screening passengers at airports coming from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia.
India’s stock markets fell on the news on Monday, reversing sharply from earlier gains. Market benchmark index Sensex wiped out its sharp gains in the last hour of trade to close down by 153 points on Monday as detection of fresh coronavirus cases in India spooked domestic investors.
The two new patients in Delhi returned from Italy and Dubai about a week ago. Both countries have reported local transmission of Covid -19.
The global death toll rose above 3,000 on Monday and Wuhan, the Chinese province at the epicentre, reported a fall in new cases.
Outside China, more than 6,500 cases and over a 100 deaths have been reported. In the largest outbreak outside the country, South Korea has had 26 deaths and reported another 599 infections on Monday, taking its tally to 4,335 following Saturday’s biggest daily jump.
Italy has 1,694 cases, the vast majority in the wealthy northern regions of Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia Romagna.
Another of the worst-hit nations, Iran, reported infections rising to 1,501 on Monday, with 66 deaths.
While there has been no reported community transmission of the infection so far in India, public health experts say localised outbreaks are bound to occur at some point. “It’s a matter of time before highly infectious viruses that are primarily transmitted through droplets from, and close contact with, infected people, start community transmission. We’ve seen it with H1N1, and now with Covid-19, which is causing multiple outbreaks in many countries,” said Dr Dileep Mavalankar, director, Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar
