A Russian national, who had come to Puttaparthi from Kochi, has been put under observation in the Isolation Ward of the Government General Hospital in Anantapur. He was sent from the Sri Sathya Sai Super Speciality Hospital at Puttaparthi after he developed cold and cough on his arrival.

Not taking chances

“The 51-year-old Russian man who came to the GGH on Sunday has mild symptoms, but not strong enough to doubt that he had contracted COVID-19. But the doctors here are not taking any chance and have sent a sample to the SVIMS Hospital in Tirupati. If they can confirm, he would be either discharged, or treated if positive,” said GGH Resident Medical Officer R. Lalitha.

“If the SVIMS laboratory cannot determine conclusively, the sample would be sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune,” GGH Superintendent M. Ramaswamy Naik said.

A walk-in suspect

Meanwhile, another Indian national from Anantapur came to the hospital on Friday on his own with suspicion of having COVID-19 symptoms. But the doctors did not find anything wrong or symptoms strong enough to suggest it was COVID-19, hence put him under observation at the Isolation Ward. He had visited the Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad and feared he could have contracted the virus. Currently, only these two patients are there in the Isolation Ward.

District health officials meanwhile had received information about 27 persons whose passports mentioned their addresses in Anantapur district, have travelled to suspect nations and arrived recently. “Whereabouts of the persons are not known now as some of the addresses were old or they had shifted to Bengaluru or Hyderabad for jobs,” District Medical and Health Officer K.V.N.S Anil Kumar told The Hindu.

As per the latest norms, those arriving from suspect countries after February 10, or having interacted with people having COVID-19 symptoms, must remain in home isolation and get monitored by the health officials.