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Novel coronavirus: Eight discharged, six people in RML isolation ward await results
New Delhi
New Delhi
Another person suspected to be infected by the novel coronavirus (nCoV-2019) has been admitted to the isolation ward at the city’s Dr Ram Manohar Lohia hospital. The 27-year old returned from China on January 30.
Eight persons admitted to the ward were discharged on Monday after their lab reports confirmed that they did not have the viral infection.
“Eight persons admitted to the hospital between January 27 to February 1 were discharged on Monday morning after their reports came out to be negative,” said Smriti Tiwari, spokesperson, RML hospital.
The reports of six persons – one admitted on Monday and five on Sunday – are awaited. The samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune for testing. So far, the lab has tested 338 samples, of which 335 were found to be negative.
Three persons from Kerala, who had travelled to China, tested positive for the disease.
Seventy other samples are under process at the central lab. Besides that, regional laboratories of the Indian Council of Medical Research have also been activated for the testing of the virus, with five samples being tested at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi.
To test patients, swabs are taken from the back of the nose and mouth, and fluid is collected from the lungs with a bronchoscope for a culture test to look for the presence of a microbe. The DNA of the virus (if any) is matched against the published 2019-nCoV sequence released by China using special testing kits.
The hospital had to expand its eight-bed isolation facility on Sunday after five more people were admitted. Now, it has a 32 bed ward.
So far, the hospital has admitted seventeen people in its isolation ward since persons travelling from China started being screened. All the patients were from Delhi-NCR.
Another 50-bed isolation facility had also been set up at Safdarjung hospital to treat persons who returned from China and have flu-like symptoms.
Over 650 Indians, who were evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan, are currently under quarantine at two isolation facilities set up by the army and the ITBP in NCR.
