A 69-year-old Italian tourist has tested positive for novel coronavirus in Rajasthan’s Jaipur for the second time, taking the number of infected people in India to six so far, the Union health ministry confirmed on Tuesday.
The Italian tourist had come to Jaipur from Udaipur on February 28 along with a group of 20 people and checked into a hotel where he complained of breathlessness and cough.
The first sample collected from the tourist on Saturday had tested negative, but his condition deteriorated and a second sample was taken, which tested positive on Monday.
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His samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune for further testing and the laboratory on Tuesday confirmed he was infected with coronavirus.
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“The patient is in isolation and is stable,” the ministry said.
After the Italian tourist tested positive for novel coronavirus at a government hospital in Jaipur on Monday, the state health department on Tuesday sent the samples of 52 people, who came in contact with the tourist, to NIV Pune.
The 52 include 37 people from SMS Hospital, 11 from Fortis Hospital and four from the hotel where the tourist stayed, the official said. All of them have been kept in quarantine, the official added.
The Italian tourist was first taken to Fortis Hospital and kept there overnight on February 28. He was shifted to the isolation ward of Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) of SMS Medical College on February 29, where he was screened for novel coronavirus and H1N1, a note signed by SMS Medical College principal Dr Sudhir Bhandari said.
{{/usCountry}}The Italian tourist was first taken to Fortis Hospital and kept there overnight on February 28. He was shifted to the isolation ward of Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) of SMS Medical College on February 29, where he was screened for novel coronavirus and H1N1, a note signed by SMS Medical College principal Dr Sudhir Bhandari said.
{{/usCountry}}“While in the isolation ward, the screening test result of COVID-19 was received at 11pm which was negative. The patient was shifted to H1N1 ICU for observation,” the note said.
On Monday, the result of the second screening test came to be positive after which the Italian was shifted back to the isolation ward’s ICU.
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In IDH, the patient came in contact with 37 people and all of them are being tested for COVID-19 and have been sent home for quarantine, said additional chief secretary of the health department, Rohit Kumar Singh.
“We are also sending the samples of 11 people from Fortis Hospital and four from the Jaipur hotel where he stayed, to Pune for testing. All these people have been told be in-home isolation,” he added.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Union health secretary Preeti Sudan held a video conference with state officials to review the situation.
“We have been told to set up rapid response teams in all districts,” Singh said.
He said standard protocols and documents were shared with the state during the video conference with the Union health secretary.
Singh said the health department is sending teams to sanitise all places where the Italian visited. “The hotel in Udaipur where he stayed has been sanitised,” he said.
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot held a review meeting late on Monday night officials of the health department and doctors of SMS Medical College.
India reported two new cases of the deadly coronavirus on Monday—one from Delhi and another one from Hyderabad.
The government has stepped up efforts to detect and check the infection which has killed more than 3000 people across the world.