Five more people who recently travelled to China and showed symptoms of Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) were admitted to the isolation ward of Fever Hospital here on Tuesday.
Their swab samples will be sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, on Wednesday. Two samples which were sent in the past few days had tested negative. Officials said there is no positive case in Telangana or India so far.
The five new in-patients, who were admitted at the hospital, include three of a family (a married couple and their daughter). They returned from China to Hyderabad a week ago, and had mild cough and cold. They approached Fever Hospital doctors on Tuesday after getting to know about the isolation ward.
Besides them, two more people contacted the doctors and were admitted to the isolation ward on Tuesday evening. Samples collected from all five will be sent for tests.
The first person to get admitted at the ward and test negative for the nCoV was re-admitted on Monday as he experienced gastric problems. He was, however, discharged on Tuesday night.
Three days ago, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan urged people with travel history to China since January 1 this year to self-report to the nearest health facility if they have symptoms such as fever, cough and respiratory distress. A 24x7 helpline number (011-23978046) was made operational for clinical queries. Thereafter, people have been calling up Health officials and reporting themselves.
Officials expect the number of people suspected to have nCoV to increase in the coming days.
