8 under watch in Maharashtra for suspected coronavirus infection

A total of
eight patients, five of them in Mumbai, are under observation in Maharashtra for
suspected coronavirus infection, a health department official said.

Six patients
were already under observation and two more people, who complained of cough and
mild fever, symptoms similar to the coronavirus, were put under medical watch
on Tuesday evening, he said.

Five of them
are in Mumbai-based Kasturba Hospital, while two are in Pune’s Naidu Hospital,
said Dr Pradeep Awate, the state’s disease surveillance officer.

One patient
has been admitted in Civil Hospital in Nanded district in the Marathwada region
of central Maharashtra, he said.

So far,
state officials have screened 3,997 people at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj
International Airport here to check their possible exposure to the new virus
which originated from China’s Wuhan city, Awate said.

No positive
case of the deadly virus has been found in Maharashtra yet.

We have
appealed to people who have been to China and have returned after January 1 to
report to government-run hospitals if they are suffering from cough and mild
fever,” he said.

Every
district in the state has a government-run hospital, where a separate ward has
been set up to treat suspected cases of the deadly infection as part of
preparation to deal with any situation related to the coronavirus, he said.

Novel
coronavirus (nCoV) is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses ranging
from common cold to acute respiratory syndromes. However, the virus that has so
far killed 80 people and affected 2,744 in China is a novel strain and not seen
before.

It has
emerged from a seafood and animal market in Wuhan city and is suspected to have
spread to as far as the United States.

According to
the World Health Organisation, the common symptoms of the novel coronavirus
strain include respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath
and breathing difficulties.