Four more people quarantined in Mumbai over coronavirus suspicion

Three others with suspected coronavirus symptoms have been admitted to the Indira Gandhi Medical College in Nagpur.

Four people, including a 29-year-old Sanpada resident, became the latest to be quarantined after they were suspected of having contracted the coronavirus.

The 29-year-old’s samples have been collected for testing at a newly-opened laboratory in Kasturba Hospital, where he is also being quarantined. The results are awaited, doctors said.

The man, who works in the shipping industry, had travelled to China on January 22 and returned to Mumbai on February 3. “He did not have a cough, cold or any other symptoms. But he knew about the coronavirus and wanted to get himself tested. So he went and got hospitalised,” a friend of the quarantined man said.

The Chennai native lives with his friend in Sanpada and often sails for months at a stretch. “He had left more than a month ago. In last few days of the journey, he travelled to China,” the friend said.

Three others with suspected coronavirus symptoms have been admitted to the Indira Gandhi Medical College in Nagpur. The state government has set up a new testing facility at the medical college to ensure that the National Institute of Virology in Pune does not have to bear the load of multiple samples in the future. Meanwhile, state officials said none of the 21 samples tested so far has been positive for the virus.