Kochi/Kottayam: As many as 42 people who arrived at the Cochin International Airport from Italy on Tuesday night were quarantined at the government hospitals in Ernakulam.
While 32 people including two children and two pregnant women have been shifted to a government district hospital in Aluva, 10 suffering from fever and breathing problems have been admitted to the Kalamassery Medical College Hospital.
Samples collected from them have been sent for examination at the National Institute of Virology lab in Alappuzha, officials said on Wednesday.
They were taken to the hospital as they failed to produce the health certificate, stating that they were not infected with coronavirus. Starting March 10, India made the health certificate mandatory for all passengers travelling from Italy and South Korea.
Meanwhile, the test results of the 4-year-old child from Chengalam in Kottayam, who had been in isolation at the Kottayam Medical College, has returned negative. The child's parents are under treatment at the Medical College.
The coronavirus had killed 631 people in Italy so far.
On Tuesday, the Union Health Ministry had asked people to refrain from travelling to China, Italy, Iran, Republic of Korea, Japan, France, Spain and Germany and advised them to avoid non-essential travel abroad in view of the coronavirus outbreak.
The government had also advised people travelling from or having visited Italy and South Korea to submit certificate of having tested negative for COVID-19 from laboratories authorised by the health authorities of their countries.
This measure came into effect from March 10 midnight and is a temporary measure till cases of novel coronavirus subside.
However, those admitted at the Aluva taluk hospital had landed at the airport just before midnight. According to sources, 45 Indians are stuck at Rome airport with Emirates airline not letting them board, saying they won't be allowed to deboard in India.
The Indian Embassy in Italy has also asked Indian students with flights to India on or after March 10 that they may submit their details by filling in a form online.
In Kottayam, a private clinic, where a COVID-19 patient visited for treatment, was closed as ordered by the district collector. The doctor who attended the patient was also asked to go on home quarantine.
District authorities have identified 24 primary contacts of the patient, who hails from Chengalam. They are also trying to identify the secondary contacts.
Meanwhile, the health officials have conducted inspections in various places in Kottayam and Pathanamthitta visited by the COVID-19 affected Keralite family.
Dr T K Jayakumar, Kottayam Medical College superintendent, on Wednesday said that the aged parents of the couple, who returned from the European nation last month along with their 24-year-old son, are being treated with utmost care at the hospital.
Though the 96-year-old father suffered a cardiac arrest on Tuesday, his condition has improved since then, the doctor said.
A new COVID-19 clinic has also started functioning at Kottayam Medical College, he added.
Meanwhile, the Ernakulam and Pathanamthitta district administration has decided to arrange more facilities at various government hospitals to keep under observation those who are expected to arrive here from foreign countries like Italy in the coming days.
With eight more people testing positive for coronavirus in Kerala on Tuesday, the total number of infected people touched 14, as the state government decided to impose severe restrictions, including closure of educational institutions and cinema houses till month end to halt its further spread.
The fresh cases include parents of the three-year-old boy, who tested positive for COVID-19 in Kochi on Monday on the family's return from Italy. “The condition of all the three are "stable", Kerala's health minister K K Shailaja told reporters.
As of March 10 (Tuesday) 1,495 people were under observation in the state – 1,236 under home quarantine and 259 in isolation wards at various hospitals. As many as 980 samples had been sent for testing, of which 815 samples turned out negative.
COVID-19, which stands for Coronavirus Disease 2019, is the name of the disease caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2. SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the Coronavirus family with crown-shaped spikes on its surfaces. The name of the disease was given by the World Health Organisation.
