Nine new corona suspects in Hyderabad hospital, 141 in quarantine

HYDERABAD: As many as nine new suspected cases of the novel coronavirus (nCoV) were reported in the city on Saturday and affected persons were put in isolation facility at Gandhi hospital.
“Five others who were tested yesterday were found to be negative. So far samples have been taken from 70 suspected cases of which 62 tested negative, while results are awaited for 8 others,” said Vijay Kumar, state nodal officer for corona.

The health department has issued a memo to district collectors to prepare for contact tracing of all people who have come in touch with the people listed by IDSP (integrated disease surveillance programme) for nCoV. So far, 67 people are on the list and contact tracing will be initiated soon, said insiders. The total number of suspected cases in Telangana including the ones who are in home isolation is now at 141. Among them are 8 patients traced by IDSP teams on Saturday.
Until now, only people who have travelled to Republic of China or to other affected countries, and those who have come in contact with persons who tested positive were to be monitored. With the new memo everyone who has come in contact with suspected cases with symptoms will be traced and tested. At the state level, the list is received daily from RGIA and central government.
“The list of persons will be communicated to the districts from the state IDSP team and district teams are required to ensure that every person in the line list maintains home isolation for 14 days. Based on the directions of state IDSP team, list of persons who came in contact with line listed persons are to be traced and surveillance is to be maintained. It is reiterated that as and when a request is made by the State IDSP team on the above lines, immediate action should be taken,” read the memo. The line list is the list of persons to be monitored, maintained by IDSP team.
The memo further explained critical and non-clinical aspects to control and prevent spread of nCoV being followed. The latest memo is in line with instructions issued by the Centre to ensure district level readiness to prevent and control spread of the virus..