India Confirms First Coronavirus Case In Kerala; Wuhan-Returned Student 'Stable'

India confirmed the first novel coronavirus case after a China-returned student was tested positive in Kerala on Thursday. According to news agency ANI, the student was studying at Wuhan University in China. “20 samples had been sent for tests out of which one was found to be positive. The patient had returned from Wuhan (China) and is now kept in isolation at General Hospital in Thrissur. She is stable,” Kerala Health minister KK Shailaja was quoted as saying. “Travellers who are returning form China should report to the Health Department. The department has directed home quarantine for those who are returning from China,” she further said. The development has rung alarm bells across country’s health administration. In national capital Delhi, three cases were tested negative. However, a woman has been quarantined in neighbouring Ghaziabad.

Meanwhile, a 23-year-old man from Tripura died in a Malaysian hospital after being infected from a new strain of coronavirus, his family member has claimed. Manir Hossain, who comes from Purathal Rajnagar village in Madhupur police station area, had gone to Malaysia in 2018 and used to work in a restaurant. Speaking to ANI, Manir Hossain's grandfather Abdul Rahim said that he received the news of his grandson's death from the Malaysian authorities on Wednesday morning.

On Wednesday, IndiGo airlines said that due to the novel coronavirus outbreak in China, it has decided to suspend its flights on the Bengaluru-Hong Kong route from February 1 onward and on the Delhi-Chengdu route from February 1 to February 20. Meanwhile, Air India has also suspended its Delhi-Shanghai flight from January 31 to February 14. Air India has advised all its cockpit and cabin crew, who travel to South East Asian cities, to wear N95 masks in the light of coronovirus outbreak.

The nationwide death count from China's novel coronavirus epidemic has jumped to 170 with 38 more fatalities reported mainly from the worst-affected central Hubei province, the government said on Thursday, while confirming more than 1,700 new infections.The coronavirus outbreak began in Wuhan, capital of China's Hubei province, in December and has now spread across the globe. The Chinese authorities are trying to contain the epidemic while other countries, including India, are working on plans to evacuate their citizens from Wuhan and other cities in Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak.