Two Chinese citizens among nine coronavirus suspects admitted

Yogita Rana and Swetha Mohanty hold review meeting on preparedness

Hyderabad, Telangana, 28/01/2020: Three member Multidisciplinary Central Team along with Sr. Regional Director of Health and Family Welfare Department Dr. Anuradha Medoju, Superintendent of Fever Hospital Dr. K. Shankar reviewed Isolation Wards at the hospital, measure taken to control and manage Novel Coronavirus, in Hyderabad on January 28, 2020. Photo: G. Ramakrishna / The Hindu

Nine more persons, including two Chinese citizens, were admitted to the isolation wards of government hospitals in the city on Wednesday.

Samples collected from them were sent to Gandhi Hospital’s virology laboratory to test for presence of Novel Coronavirus (nCoV).

Of the nine suspected cases, five persons were admitted to Gandhi Hospital and the remaining, including the two Chinese, to the Sir Ronald Ross Institute of Tropical and Communicable Diseases (Fever Hospital) at Nallakunta.

Officials said that the two Chinese citizens complained of cold and cough and their samples were sent for tests.

Meanwhile, samples collected from four persons tested negative for nCoV. Till date, none of the 25 nCoV suspects from the State tested positive.

10-bed ICU

A 10-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU), exclusively for nCoV positive cases, is being set up at Gandhi Hospital.

Though the hospital has a 65-bed ICU, another facility was established as the nCoV positive cases cannot be treated along with other patients.

Director of Medical Education (DME) K. Ramesh Reddy said that they arranged for the 10-bed ICU as a standby. “Coronavirus suspects will continue to be attended to at the isolation wards of hospitals. We have organised basic ICU facilities such as mechanical ventilators, oxygen pipelines and monitors, in two rooms at the Emergency Block of Gandhi Hospital,” Dr. Ramesh Reddy said.

The Health department officials have placed order for more disinfectants, which would be used in areas like lifts or corridors through which the nCoV positive patients would be taken.

Senior officials from the Health department, including Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare Yogita Rana and new Collector of Hyderabad district Swetha Mohanty, held a review meeting on preparedness for nCoV on Wednesday.

The Commissioner and Hyderabad Collector would visit Gandhi Hospital and Fever Hospital on Thursday.