TN reports first case of coronavirus; 2 test positive from Ladakh

Tamil Nadu reported the first case of coronavirus on Saturday (March 7), with a 45-year-old man who had travelled to Oman testing positive.

The resident from Tamil Nadu has been kept in isolation at RGG Hospital in Chennai for further observation.

Meanwhile, two other cases of coronavirus were confirmed in India on Saturday from Ladakh, taking the total number of infected people in India to 34.

The residents who tested positive in Ladakh had travelled to Iran, which is the second most infected country after China.

All three people are said to be in stable condition.

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The patient, a male aged 45 had returned from Muscat in Oman to India at the end of February.

The patient whose native is Kancheepuram, was admitted to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) on March 5, reportedly having fever and cough.

After initial screening, he has been isolated and is under supervision at the hospital. His samples have been sent to National Institute of Virology at Pune.

State health minister C Vijayabaskar, who tweeted about the case, asked people not to panic.

#COVID19 positive for 45Y male who traveled from Oman.Due to d stringent screening process,we identified & isolated the Pt for further treatment @ RGGH Chennai. Pt is stable &under hospital observation,#TNHealth is fully functional to combat d situation. Pls avoid state of panic

— Dr C Vijayabaskar (@Vijayabaskarofl) March 7, 2020

A senior official from the health department said that his samples were first tested at King Institute of Preventive Research and Medicine, Chennai.

“The result showed positive and two other samples showed negative. So we have sent the samples to Pune. He is now stable and his family has also been isolated and under supervision,” he said.

Earlier, a person from Delhi and Telangana each tested positive, while two more people from Delhi were confirmed to have been infected by the virus before that.

The virus has now spread to more than 90 countries, with the number of infected cases crossing the 1,00,000 mark globally. More than 3,500 people have died so far.

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As a safety measure to prevent large gatherings at public places, the Central and state governments have cancelled several events, including celebrations for Holi and Women’s Day.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with the health ministry and other departments to assess the current situation and direct them to identify locations for sufficient quarantine facilities and make provisions for critical care in case the disease spreads further.

More than 50 centres across the country have been authorized to collect samples from patients suspected to be infected.

Several schools and offices have been closed, and employers are asking their staff to work from home.