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People who came in contact of Coronavirus-hit Bengaluru techie under watch: Karnataka Health Minister

The techie had worked with people from Hong Kong in Dubai last month where he is suspected to have contracted the virus, Telangana health minister E Rajender told reporters in Hyderabad.

People who came in contact of Coronavirus-hit Bengaluru techie under watch: Karnataka Health Minister

The  24-year-old software engineer who works in Bengaluru recently returned from Dubai, and is tested positive for the virus. (Photo by Nhac NGUYEN / AFP)

With two new cases of the deadly novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 being reported in India from New Delhi and Telangana, Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu has said that a medical team is monitoring the health condition of all those people who had stayed with the Coronavirus-hit techie who is admitted to a hospital in Hyderabad, with a  travel history from Dubai.

The  24-year-old software engineer who works in Bengaluru recently returned from Dubai, and is tested positive for the virus. This is the first confirmed case of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)  in Telangana.

“It has come to our knowledge that the coronavirus-hit person in Hyderabad had gone from Bengaluru. Therefore, all the members in the house where he had stayed here have been identified and are under watch,” Sriramulu tweeted on late Monday night.

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The Karnataka minister said he has convened a meeting with the additional chief secretary, commissioner and other senior officials of the health department today.

“Our government has initiated all the measures to prevent the spread of this virus,” the minister said.

The software engineer has not contracted it when he was in Bengaluru but all precautionary measures have been taken.

The techie had worked with people from Hong Kong in Dubai last month where he is suspected to have contracted the virus, Telangana health minister E Rajender told reporters in Hyderabad.

The man reached Bengaluru on February 19/20 and later went to Hyderabad in a bus.

He took treatment for fever after coming to Hyderabad and was admitted to a private super speciality hospital in the city. As it did not subside, he came to the state-run Gandhi hospital on Sunday evening, Rajender said.

The other positive case for Coronavirus reported from Delhi, the person  had recently returned from the virus hit-Italy.

The government has, meanwhile, advised Indians to avoid non-essential travel to China, Iran, Korea, Singapore, and Italy.

“We are already prepared in advance and are closely monitoring other countries. We are also discussing if we have to revise any of our decisions, amplify it or focus in any particular direction,” the Union minister said.

Till now, only three cases had been reported in India, all from the southern state of Kerala.

All the three patients — a female and two males — who were tested coronavirus positive were studying in Wuhan. However, all the three were discharged from hospital after they recovered from the disease.

The Centre has evacuated Indians as well as foreign nationals at least thrice from the COVID-19-affected China. Suspected persons were quarantined at the Chhawala and Manesar isolation camps arranged by the Army and the ITBP.

The virus which has spread to more than 70 countries has reportedly infected over 88,000 people globally.

The United States and Australia reported their first fatalities over the weekend, while infections nearly doubled in the past 48 hours in Italy, Europe’s hardest-hit country.

Meanwhile, according to reports, around 85 Indian students stranded for a week in the university town of Pavia in north Italy’s Lombardy region, which has reported 17 Coronavirus deaths over the past few days, have sent an SOS seeking evacuation at the earliest.

A video has also been sent from Iran showing about 17 Kerala fishermen among the hundreds who are presently trapped in Iran, unable to move out on account of the deadly Coronavirus.

Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar has assured Congress MP Shashi Tharoor to rescue the fishermen of his constituency, stranded in Iran.

Iran has reported over 50 deaths while more than 30 people have died of the virus in Italy.

,Meanwhile the epi-centre of Coronavirus China reported 125 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, marking the lowest number of new daily infections in six weeks. 31 more deaths were reported, all in Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, raising the nationwide toll to 2,943.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday that the virus appears to particularly hit those over the age of 60 and people already weakened by other illnesses.

(With PTI inputs)

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