CoV toll 26, spreads to Korea, Japan, Thailand

Tribune News Service

New Delhi/ Mumbai, Jan 24

With coronavirus infection spreading to Korea, Japan, Thailand and Singapore, the WHO today put member nations on the alert. Of 897 cases reported in China, 26 have succumbed to the virus.

In India, the ICMR lab at the National Institute of Virology tonight said all four samples (two from Mumbai, one each from Bengaluru and Hyderabad) have tested negative for nCoV (novel coronavirus). One of the patients from Mumbai has tested positive for Rhinovirus, a routine common cold virus.

The  government has scree-ned 20,844 passengers in 96 flights with 4,082 passengers screened in 19 flights today itself. “No nCoV case has been detected in the country so far. The travel advisory has been extended to 12 more airports in addition to the seven international airports where thermal screening is underway. The National Institute of Virology, Pune, is geared to test samples of nCoV and 10 other Indian Council of Medical Research’s Viral Research and Diagnostics Labs network are equipped for testing and containment,” the Health Ministry said.

Twelve new airports where government’s advisory and signage will be put are Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Guwahati, Gaya, Bagdogra, Jaipur, Lucknow, Trivandrum, Trichy, Varanasi and Vishakapatnam. The WHO said the source of nCoV outbreak in Wuhan City was still unknown. Two Mumbai residents who arrived from affected areas of China were in quarantine at Kasturba Hospital. Both showed symptoms similar to those infected by coronavirus. They tested negative, ICMR lab National Institute of Virology tonight said. So did two more.

WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT IT

A new kind of viral pneumonia reported from Wuhan, China, coronaviruses are family of respiratory viruses that can cause diseases ranging from common cold to the Middle-East Respiratory Syndrome and SARS

SYMPTOMS SEEN SO FAR

Mainly fever, with some patients having difficulty in breathing and chest radiographs showing bilateral lung infiltrates