Thiruvananthapuram: In further relief to Kerala, a student treated for the novel coronavirus in the state was discharged on Sunday after two consecutive test results returned negative, becoming India's second patient to recover from the infection, health authorities said.
The patient from Kasaragod district, one of the three positive cases of coronavirus detected in the country on their return from China, would, however, remain under home quarantine for ten days, the state health department said.
"Two consecutive results of the patient came negative and was then discharged today morning. The patient will have to remain under home quarantine for ten more days," a senior health official told PTI.
More than 2,000 people are still under observation for the novel coronavirus in the state, which had accounted for all three positive cases in the country.
Earlier on Thursday, a student from Alappuzha was discharged after his two consecutive samples sent for testing at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune turned out to be negative.
India's first coronavirus case, a woman medico from Thrissur, is awaiting test results from Pune NIV after samples screened at the Alappuzha centre of the institute had returned negative last week.
"Now, we are waiting for the test result of the student admitted to Thrissur Medical College Hospital. Once the negative result is received, we can proceed to discharge," the official said.
Both the discharged students, studying in a university in Wuhan, the epicentre of the deadly virus that has claimed over 1,600 lives in China, had earlier tested positive for the infection and were treated in isolation wards set up in medical college hospitals in Alappuzha and Kasaragod.
Of the 2,210 people under surveillance in various districts, as many as 16 were in isolation wards in hospitals and the remaining 2,194 are in home quarantine, Kerala Health Minister K K Shailaja said in a release on Sunday.
Of the 415 samples sent for testing at the NIV in Pune, a total of 396 turned out to be negative and the results of the remaining were awaited, the release, quoting the Minister, said.
Earlier, after the three students tested positive, the government had declared the coronavirus as a state calamity, but withdrew it after effective quarantine and no fresh cases were reported.
406 Wuhan-returnees tested negative in Delhi, to be discharged
All 406 people, who are housed at an ITBP quarantine facility in New Delhi after being brought back from Wuhan, have tested negative for novel Coronavirus in the latest sample examination and will be discharged in a phased manner beginning Monday, officials said.
The final samples of all the people quarantined at the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) facility here were collected by a team of doctors on Friday.
The final coronavirus test reports of all 406 people have been found negative, an ITBP spokesperson said on Sunday.
All 406 persons are going to be discharged in a phased manner from Monday onwards based on the advisory issued by the Ministry of Health with due medical procedures and protocols, he said.
The group includes seven Maldives citizens. There are seven children including an infant in the group.
A total of 650 people were brought back from Wuhan in China on February 1 and 2 in two 747 Boeing Air India aircraft after the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus in China. While 406 of these are being looked after at the ITBP facility, rest are at an Army centre at Manesar in Haryana.
The death toll from COVID-19 outbreak in China has climbed to 1,665 after 142 more people died, mostly in the worst-hit Hubei province, Chinese officials said on Sunday. There have been 68,500 cases so far in the neighbouring country.
Passengers arriving in flights from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Japan and South Korea were being screened for possible exposure to the respiratory virus at 21 identified airports in India.
(With PTI inputs)
