Bengaluru: Iranian student self-reports Coronavirus, tests negative

BENGALURU: A 27-year-old Iranian student studying at a private dental college here returned to Bengaluru two days ago after visiting his mother in Iran. The man self-reported at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases on Saturday morning, suspecting that he may have Coronavirus (COVID-19) after he learnt that his mother had tested positive in Tehran, Iran. While his initial test was negative, the hospital has continued to keep him isolated and under observation. He had returned to India via Kuwait. “This happens to be the first case of a man who had contact with a positive case. Hence, despite the test results being negative, we are waiting for the Government of India guidelines. We may have to do a repeat test. He still has a fever, but is stable,” said Dr C Nagaraja, director, RGICD. The man will continue to be in the isolation ward of the hospital for the next two days, depending on his condition. At present, the COVID-19 tests are being done in the Bengaluru unit of National Institute of Virology right behind RGICD. “It takes just four hours for the test report now,” said authorities. On the other hand, concerns among the public have been mounting up. The 104 Arogyavani helpline of state health and family welfare department has got 6,255 calls enquiring about the virus for the last two months. Interestingly, the cases are more from North Karnataka regions, than Bengaluru and other parts of the southern state say authorities. “It’s good to clear doubts. The majority of the calls have queries of whether there are cases in Karnataka,” said authorities. Meanwhile, the union health ministry has called for a one-day national training of trainers on March 6 in New Delhi. From each state, four senior level officials will be participating in the training programme. “After successfully managing three confirmed cases in Kerala, the country is gearing up to move to the next level to strengthen preparedness and response to combat the outbreak, if it happens,” said an official letter sent by Lav Agarwal, joint secretary, ministry of health and family welfare. Source: timesofindia.com