Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja said that a person admitted to the Alappuzha Medical College may be positive for coronavirus. Though a press release by the Centre had said that the second case of coronovirus had been confirmed and it was a student from Kerala, KK Shailaja said that the state was still awaiting the report from National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune.
“NIV has only said that a preliminary analysis has been done. NIV is yet to give us the final result. We cannot say anything for sure till the final results come. But since NIV has said that this student is likely to have contracted the disease, we are being extra vigilant,” she told the media on Sunday, 2 February.
Another student who returned from Wuhan province in China has tested positive for Coronavirus and she is in isolation at the Thrissur Medical College.
The Health Minister insisted that those in home quarantine should not go out without informing the health department. “Though 14 days is the incubation period, to ensure more safety, we have asked people to be in quarantine for 28 days.”
“If any functions like weddings are fixed in the families of such persons, such programs should be postponed without any excuse. There is no great loss in postponing a wedding, but hundreds of people come for functions like this. We are a densely populated state and if the disease spreads, it will become tough for us.”Kerala Health Minister
The Minister also said that the state government has requested the Centre to speed up the procedures and send the results as soon as possible.
“We are very vigilant after Nipah. There is no clear treatment for such virus infections. Proper rest and isolation is what is needed most. People should also know that everyone may not show all the symptoms,” the Health Minister reminded.
The Minister also reminded that though there is an NIV in Alappuzha, there was still no permission for conducting tests for coronavirus. “We have contacted the Centre and asked them to speed up the procedures and send results fast. Though we have NIV in Alappuzha, we cannot test there without permission. We hope the results will come out by today evening. As of now, 24 results came till yesterday, out of 56 samples sent to test,” Shailaja said.
(The article was first published on The News Minute and has been republished in an arrangement.)
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