Two suspected cases of COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease-2019) were isolated at the Government Hospital for Chest and Communicable Diseases (GHCCD) here in the last two days.
Both are young women who have recently returned from China, said doctors. One of them is a medical student studying in the Chinese city of Kunming while the second woman works in China as a house surgeon.
“Both were healthy when they arrived in the city. They developed symptoms like cough and fever subsequently and reported at the hospital as a precaution. Their symptoms subsided with drugs but we did not want to take any chances and sent their blood samples to the Virology Lab in Hyderabad for confirmation,” Dr. K. Rambabu, State Nodal Officer for COVID-19, told The Hindu on Tuesday.
“The first girl, who is 18 years old, is studying MBBS 1st year at Kunming city, 1,560 km away from Wuhan. She travelled from Kunming to Bangkok and from there flew to Kolkata, and came by train to Visakhapatnam on February 13. She exhibited no symptoms at the time of arriving in the city. She subsequently developed diarrhoea and later fever and dry cough and came to the hospital. Her X-ray report was normal and other symptoms subsided with the administration of drugs,” Dr. Rambabu said.
“In the second case, a 22-year-old house surgeon from Nanjing, about 535 km from Wuhan city, arrived in Visakhapatnam on February 8. She flew from Nanjing to Visakhapatnam via Bangkok and Malaysia. She showed no symptoms upon arriving in Visakhapatnam. Later, she developed a fever and reported at GHCCD today. Her X-ray report too is normal and she has no other symptoms. Her blood samples were sent to Hyderabad for testing,” Dr. Rambabu said.
Doctors expect a negative report in both cases and say there is no room for panic. The lab reports are expected in a day or two.