One more patient was admitted on Thursday, taking the total suspected cases in GMCH to 16.(File)

A suspected coronavirus patient undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) is “stable” and 13 others, who came in contact with him after his arrival from the US on March 6, have been quarantined.

Nagpur’s Divisional Commissioner Sanjiv Kumar said, “The patient’s condition is stable. We have identified 13 persons who came in close contact with him after his arrival from the US and have put them under quarantine. They include his close relatives, help, gardener, two drivers and passengers seated next to him aboard the flight. We have taken their samples and will decide further course of action depending on the results,” Kumar said.

As reported earlier, two persons, including a German woman, were quarantined at GMCH on Wednesday. The German woman has tested negative. One more patient was admitted on Thursday, taking the total suspected cases in GMCH to 16. One person who has tested positive is under treatment at Indira Gandhi Government Medical College.

Civil surgeon D V Paturkar said, “The results of tests will come on Friday.”

According to Kumar, “from Friday, we will be screening all passengers arriving at Nagpur airport and quarantine those with a travel history in the seven most affected countries viz China, Italy, France, South Korea, Spain, Iran and Germany. For them we have created facilities for check-up and treatment at some places in the city. We have also created a control room with the helpline number 0712-2562668.”

The detection of one positive patient, however, did cause panic in a school where the patient’s son is studying. The school authorities issued a clarification saying the student had been quarantined and didn’t come to school and there was no need for the parents to panic.

9 quarantined in Yavatmal

Nine persons have been quarantined in the isolation ward of Vasantrao Naik Government Medical College of Yavatmal after one of their contacts reportedly tested positive for the virus in Pune. “A group of ten persons belonging to three families had gone to Dubai on February 23 and nine of them had returned to Yavatmal on March

1. One person had gone directly to Pune. We got direction from the government on Thursday to put the nine persons on quarantine. We have done that. We have taken their throat swabs and will send them for testing to Nagpur on Friday,” Yavatmal Civil Surgeon Tarangtushar Ware said.