Suspected patient admitted to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi

The state health department on Tuesday said they are waiting for a final report from National Institute of Virology, Pune, to ascertain if a resident of Sector 50,

The state health department on Tuesday said they are waiting for a final report from National Institute of Virology, Pune, to ascertain if a resident of Sector 50, who has been admitted to the Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi since last week, has been infected by the coronavirus.

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Rajeev Arora, state’s additional chief secretary, health department, on Tuesday, confirmed, that the patient is undergoing treatment at the Safdarjung Hospital. “We are waiting for the second and final approval from NIV. The entire contact history of the patient is being traced. Samples of the other two family members have been taken for testing,” he said.

Officials of the district health department also said that the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) laboratory has confirmed the case to be positive and the second round of confirmation from the NIV is awaited.

Officials said all positive samples tested in other laboratories are sent to NIV for a final confirmation, as per the government guidelines. Haryana’s first coronavirus case was reported from Gurugram on Monday. Health officials say the Sector 50 case could be the second one.

According to the district health officials, the 44-year-old male had recently travelled to London. “He reached Gurugram on March 7 with heavy viral load. After his return from London, the patient stayed at his residence in Sector 50 for two days. On March 9, he visited RML Hospital to give samples. Considering his health condition, he was admitted to Safdarjung Hospital,” a senior health official, on the condition of anonymity, said.

Poonam Dhanda, spokesperson, Safdarjung Hospital, did not respond to calls for comment.

The matter came to light on Monday after the residents’ welfare association (RWA) of his condominium issued a message to all residents, informing that the man has tested positive for Covid-19 and a team from NCDC, Delhi, had visited them. As reported by HT on Monday, the RWA message stated that the family and all the mapped support staff (full-time and part-time) have been examined and tested by the NCDC team. Quarantine continues for this group and reports are awaited.