Phew! TS heaves sigh of relief as eight test negative for nCov

Hyderabad: Even as Kerala registered a third positive novel coronavirus (nCoV) case on Monday, Telangana State heaved a sigh of relief with reports of 8 suspected cases coming out negative to the deadly virus on Monday.

These samples were taken from city individuals who returned from China in the last two-three weeks and approached State health officials after which samples were collected and sent from Fever and Gandhi hospitals in the last three-four days.

Due to the spike in the number of samples from various States, the government-authorised lab in NIV (Pune) took a few more days extra in conducting the test and sending the report. Ten days ago, test results were communicated in less than two days' time.

Overall 19 samples were sent by Telangana health authorities to Pune till now and all of them came out negative. Fever Hospital superintendent Dr K Shankar told The Hans India about the results of eight pending samples.

Meanwhile, the flow of city residents with recent travel history to Wuhan and other parts of China continued with one suspected case admitted in Fever Hospital by evening.

With virology lab in Gandhi Hospital getting nod to conduct nCoV determination tests from Monday, all samples of suspected cases from Fever and Gandhi hospitals will be tested here only.

Health Minister Eatala Rajender who inspected the virology lab in Gandhi Hospital on Monday declared that samples of suspected cases from the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh State would also be tested here in Gandhi Hospital only.

He said that doctors and technicians were given orientation on how to go about sample testing and treatment of nCoV cases. Eatala said that no positive cases so far is a good sign for the State. However, he said that his department is on high alert round-the-clock.