Three more persons have been admitted to Beliaghata Infectious Diseases Hospital in Kolkata on Wednesday. Of the three, one is a sailor from Kerala’s Kochi and the two other a couple who had recently visited Thailand. Their test samples have been sent to the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), which is inside the Beliaghata ID Hospital premises.
Earlier, four persons had been admitted to Kolkata’s ID Hospital, out of whom three have tested negative and the report of the fourth person is awaited. All seven persons have been kept under observation and in isolation wards.
The West Bengal government has decided to open isolation wards for suspected cases of Novel Coronavirus in seven major hospitals in the state apart from the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Kolkata’s Beliaghata.
With Kerala declaring a “state calamity” due to Novel Coronavirus, other states, especially those with international airports and large flow of international passengers are especially on the alert. Three positive cases have been detected in Kerala – all the cases of Coronavirus in India are from Kerala.
People who were either travelling with those detected with the virus or those who have recently returned from China, have been kept under observation in isolation wards.
There have been 425 deaths in China from Novel Coronavirus so far and over 17,000 have been affected. The state health department authorities are constantly in touch with officials of the Union Health Ministry to coordinate and to inform them about every detail.
Coronavirus (CoV) is a large family of viruses which cause illnesses ranging from common cold to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The suspects in coronavirus infection need to be kept under observation for at least 14 days as the symptoms of this virus are expressed late, experts say. In early stages, this virus is hard to detect as the early signs of this infection are quite similar to those from common viruses. The symptoms may include diarrhoea with fever, cough and common cold.
The government is also trying to reach out to people through advertisements for reporting any suspected cases to hospitals and to not neglect such symptoms especially if this has happened following recent international travel.
Comments are closed.