No positive case of nCoV so far in TS

Hyderabad: Big relief for Telangana after samples of 19 suspected cases taken on Thursday came out negative to the deadly coronavirus. Among the suspected cases, there were Chinese nationals also and this led to rumours that two of them might have got infected.

After Telangana health officials started taking samples of people with recent travel history to China and having related symptoms, this was the first occasion when so many samples were collected on a single day.

Although authorities clarified that no positive case was registered to nail the positive case rumours in the media, all eyes were on results of 19 samples particularly those of Chinese nationality. Even Health Minister Eatala Rajender gave a statement on Friday morning saying that no positive case has been seen in Telangana.

Nodal officer for Coronavirus Dr Vijay Kumar stated that all samples including those of Chinese were clear from the nCoV. He said thus far 56 samples were collected by the department and none of them tested positive to the deadly virus.

The nine Chinese nationals, who were in the isolation wards of Fever and Gandhi hospitals, were discharged following test results. Meanwhile, five new suspected cases were admitted in Gandhi Hospital on Friday and all of them were passengers, who self-reported, after getting down at Shamshabad airport.

Information of another 17 persons with travel history to the neighbouring Asian nation was shared by the Centre and other wings with Telangana on Thursday. However, they were not symptomatic and hence samples were not collected.

They were told by the IDSP (Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme) teams to be in-home isolation for the next few weeks. In a bulletin issued by the Medical department, it was stated that until now 4,698 passengers were screened by the airport's health officials at Shamshabad.

The total number of persons in Telangana with recent travel history to Wuhan and other Chinese cities was found to be 123 with 57 persons found to be asymptomatic to the virus and 61 symptomatic including the five new cases reported on Friday.