THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Two days after the first case of Coronavirus infection in India was confirmed in Kerala, the state reported its second positive case.
As per a statement from the Union Health Ministry, the second positive case has a travel history to China.
However even as the Union Health Ministry issued a statement regarding the second confirmed case of novel coronavirus (nCoV) in Kerala, the state health minister KK Shailaja said that it is 'only an assumption as per the preliminary report' and that the state will officially confirm the same only after receiving the detailed test result from National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune.
"The state could only confirm the case after receiving the test result from NIV Pune. The institute also informed us about a possible confirmed case. I had talked to Union health secretary Preeti Sudan for making the test result available in a fastpaced manner," said Shailaja.
In a press meet convened at Kollam, state health minister KK Shailaja said that the second positive case is reportedly from Alappuzha.
The patient is said to be a medical student who had returned to Kerala from Wuhan and has been admitted to the isolation ward of Alappuzha Government Medical College. The patient's condition is said to be stable.
She added that to oversee the preparedness of surveillance and preventive aspects at the Medical College Hospital in Alappuzha, National Health Mission state director Ratan Kelkar has been asked to convene a high-level meeting at Alappuzha.
Further, the minister stressed that though there was no reason to panic, and that people should remain vigilant and cautious as nCov, has spread to 23 countries and claimed over 300 lives.
A high-level meeting to address the crisis was chaired by health principal secretary Rajan Khobragade at Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday.
Earlier, the first confirmed case of nCoV was reported from Thrissur and per the daily bulletin of the department, the health status of the patient remains satisfactory.
Kerala has put 1,793 people who had arrived from corona affected countries under surveillance, of which 1,723 are under home isolation and 70 are admitted in selected isolation facilities.
Meanwhile, the Centre had on Saturday said that it had decided to screen all passengers from Thailand and Singapore at airports in addition to travelers coming from China and Hongkong in the wake of rising number of nCov cases.
Till February, over 52,000 passengers from 326 flights had been screened at airports in India.
So far, nearly 105 samples have been tested for the virus in India and two have tested positive, officials said.