Mumbai: A day after all five patients were discharged from the isolation ward at Kasturba hospital, a new patient was quarantined, for possible exposure to coronavirus. However, her test report showed her positive for swine flu, not coronavirus.
"Earlier we had admitted to her the isolation ward of the hospital, but later she was shifted to a normal ward after her test report was found to be negative for coronavirus," said an health official.
Earlier on Saturday, all five patients were discharged as their test reports were negative. But the health officials from the state health department are keeping a tab on them through telephonic conversations. Till Sunday, a total of 8,878 people were screened at Mumbai international airport on arriving from China. So far, no confirmed case of coronavirus infection has been found in the state. However, six are quarantined, of which four are at Naidu hospital in Pune and one each at Kasturba and Miraj hospital.
Meanwhile, nearly after two weeks, the state health department decided to deploy 25 health officials at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, who will assist the Airports Authority of India (AAI) personnel in screening passengers arriving.
“Passengers arriving from China and Hong Kong are being screened since January 18. From Saturday, we have also added two more locations - Singapore and Thailand - to be watched for the coronavirus infection,” the official said.
The AAI has also requested the state government to provide more staff for screening passengers. "The government has issued an order and health officials from the neighbouring Thane district will be deployed at the Mumbai international airport for the screening purpose, starting today," the official added.
The central government, on Sunday, issued a new travel advisory, asking people to refrain from travelling to China in view of the coronavirus outbreak in its Hubei province, and said travellers, on returning from the neighbouring country, could be quarantined. In its advisory, the Health Ministry also said that anyone with a travel history of China since January 15 could be quarantined.
The decision of issuing a new travel advisory was taken at a high-level review meeting held by the cabinet secretary on the preparedness to deal with the novel coronavirus, which has now spread to 25 countries.
