Coronavirus: 2 Wuhan students put in isolation 2 wks after return

MUMBAI: Two medical students from Wuhan who landed in Mumbai on January 25 were placed in isolation at BMC’s Kasturba Hospital on Friday, February 7, and tested for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (nCoV).
It is not clear how these 24-year-old medical students, who hail from Kerala, reached Andheri despite the central health ministry’s guideline to test every traveller from Wuhan—the epicentre of the 2019-nCoV outbreak— for the virus even if they are asymptomatic.
“We got a call from Kasaragod (Kerala) health officials stating that these two medical students are in Mumbai and should be picked up for testing,” said Maharashtra Disease Surveillance Officer Dr Pradeep Awate on Saturday. The state health officials then called the students who willingly came to Kasturba, near Saat Raasta.
“Both these medical students left Wuhan on January 22 and are without symptoms so far,” said BMC’s additional municipal commissioner S Kakani. Their swab samples are being tested at Kasturba, but have also been sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune. The tests results are awaited.
“As our testing facility is new, we have to send 13 samples to NIV which will check them for corroboration,’’ said Kakani. Incidentally, only swab tests are available for the 2019-nCoV, but the state is also collecting blood samples from suspects for future tests that can be developed.
While 35 travellers are in isolation, 30 have tested negative and results of five more, including the two students from Wuhan, are awaited.
Meanwhile, the Chinese traveller at Pune’s Naidu Hospital isolated after vomiting on a flight tested negative.
Between January 18 and February 8, 18,084 travellers were screened at Mumbai airport. “Field surveillance is also actively on for people coming from nCov-affected areas,” said Dr Awate, adding the state has got 140 travellers so far, 57 of whom completed their followup of 14 days.