Telangana's Patient Zero sets off hunt for more Covid-19 cases

Bengaluru | Hyderabad: The Karnataka health department on Monday began the giant task of tracking and identifying all people who could have come in contact with the 25-year-old software engineer from Bengaluru who has tested positive for Covid-19 (coronavirus).The affected person, now in Telangana, is said to be working with a city-based software company; he had travelled to Dubai for a company meeting and interacted with software engineers from Hong Kong there.India on Monday reported two new cases of Covid-19, one from the national capital and the other from Telangana.Telangana health minister Etela Rajender said that the software engineer returned to Bengaluru on February 20 and attended work for a couple of days, before leaving for Hyderabad on February 22. After suffering from cold and fever, the engineer availed treatment at Apollo Hospitals as an outpatient for over a week and was referred to the government-run Gandhi Hospital on Sunday, where the person was diagnosed as Covid-19-positive.The Karnataka health officials, however, refused to divulge the name of the software company which the engineer works for, saying they want to avoid panic. “We are tracking and trying to get in touch with all those persons who have come in contact with the coronavirus-affected person as per protocol. We will keep them under observation and shift them to a quarantine facility if required,” said Dr Prakash Kumar BG, joint director, monitoring communicable diseases in the state.Meanwhile, the Telangana health minister said the situation is under control and that the state government has prepared certain hospitals and special wards to handle the Covid-19 cases if detected.Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has convened an emergency meeting of the cabinet sub-committee to take stock of the situation and also take precautionary measures to detect and prevent the spread of the deadly virus, said the health minister.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2uOkZzp