The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the State was reported from Hyderabad on Monday where a man, who recently returned from Dubai, tested postive for coronavirus.
The 24-year-old patient who works for a software company in Bengaluru landed there on February 20 from Dubai, worked there for a day and reached Hyderabad by bus on February 22. In Dubai, he worked along with people from Hong Kong
Telangana Health Minister Eatala Rajender said the man who developed cough, sneezing, consulted doctors at Apollo Hospital, Secunderabad, as an out patient and got admitted there.
After performing tests, he tested negative for Swine Flu. Based on suspicion, he was referred to Gandhi Hospital which is one of the government hospitals with isolation ward facility for COVID suspects and the virus positive patients.
“He got admitted at Gandhi Hospital at 5 p.m on Sunday. Samples were collected and he tested positive for COVID-19,” Mr Rajender said adding that they cross checked the results with the National Institute for Virology(NIV), Pune for confirmation.
The techie is admitted in an ICU dedicated for COVID-19 positive patients. Located in the 7th floor of the main building of the government hospital, the ward has all the facilities like ventilator support and piped supply of oxygen.
Mr Rajender said that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was informed of the positive case and instructions were passed to take serious measures.
The Health minister along with officials will hold a review meeting with ministers, principal secretaries and heads of Panchayat Raj and Rural Development (PR&RD), Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) on Tuesday morning.
Apart from ensuring the patient gets treated and the virus does not spread to others, an important task on hands of Health officials is to track everyone the patient came in contact with after reaching Telangana.