Second case of coronavirus confirmed in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram / New Delhi: The second case of coronavirus in India was reported in Kerala, the Union Ministry of Health said this morning, three days after the southern state reported the first case of infectious disease in the country that killed at more than 300 people in China. The coronavirus epidemic, which originated in China and has spread to over 20 countries around the world in recent weeks, has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization.

"The second positive case of a patient with a new coronavirus has been reported in Kerala. The patient has a history of travel from China. The patient is stable and is carefully monitored," said the government in a statement. The patient is said to have returned from China on January 24.

More than 1,700 people are under surveillance in their homes in Kerala for possible exposure to the virus. Seventy people are monitored in isolation rooms across the state. "We are well prepared with surveillance systems and multi-level support in the field. A 28-day home quarantine is critical," Kerala minister KK Shailaja said earlier this week, urging people to travel from China to report to the health department.

On Thursday, Kerala reported the first case of coronavirus in India: a medical student studying in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic. He was quarantined in a Thrissur hospital after "self-reporting" a throat infection, the government said.

The Ministry of Health of the Union also asked people who have a history of travel to China since January 1st to report to the nearest health center if they have had symptoms such as fever, cough or breathing problems. According to the government, over 52,000 passengers on 326 flights were scanned for new coronaviruses at several airports in the country. Ninety-seven symptomatic travelers were referred to isolation facilities, authorities said.
Possible cases are also monitored in hospital isolation rooms in several cities, including Delhi and Mumbai.

This morning, a second group of 324 Indians, confined to Wuhan, were evacuated from the city by an Air India plane. They landed in Delhi around 9:40 am today. The first Air India flight, a specially prepared Boeing 747, brought 324 Indians stranded to the city on Saturday.

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