Coronavirus Outbreak: Bihar Girl Admitted To Hospital On Showing Symptoms After Returning From China

A girl in Bihar’s Chapra has been admitted to hospital as she showed symptoms similar to those of the deadly coronavirus after her recent return from China, Hindustan Times reported attributing news agency ANI on Monday (27 January).

The superintendent of Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) said, “A girl from Chapra, who recently returned from China, was admitted to ICU at a hospital in Chapra after she showed symptoms similar to that of coronavirus. Now she is on the way to Patna, she’ll be admitted at PMCH.”

The virus, that has been rapidly spreading in China, has caused over 80 deaths there with thousands admitted to hospitals. The cases of infection from the virus have also been reported across the globe, mainly from countries such as Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the United States, and Canada.

In another case, a doctor in Rajasthan also came back from China and was doubted to have come in contact of the virus. His blood samples will now be sent to he National Institute of Virology in Pune, as per state’s health department.

“The state health minister Dr Raghu Sharma directed the SMS medical college administration to keep the doctor who has returned from China after completing his MBBS and is suspected to be infected with the coronavirus, in isolation and to screen his family members,” said the health department in a statement, according to an HT report.

In the wake of the outbreak of coronavirus, at least 30,000 passengers from hundreds of flights have been screened upon their arrival in the country until Sunday. However, the Union Health Ministry informed that no positive case had been detected yet.

India has also requested China to allow the nearly 200-250 Indian students stranded in the Chinese city of Wuhan to leave the country. The city has been under lock down for sometime as it is being considered the epicentre of the fast spreading Coronavirus.

Authorities across India have been on their toes after the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Saturday sought a review of country’s preparedness against any potential situation considering the growing global concern over the virus, for which no substantial cure has yet been found.

Following PMO’s review, Over 100 people have been put under strict observation in Kerala and Maharashtra over the suspicion of possibility of exposure to coronavirus.

Meanwhile in China, President Xi Jinping has admitted that his country is facing a “grave situation”, while addressing a meeting of the elite seven-member politburo standing committee held to discuss how to respond to the coronavirus outbreak.

The New York Times quoted Xi as saying “Confronted with the grave situation of this accelerating spread of pneumonia from infections with the novel coronavirus, we must step up the centralised and united leadership under the party central”.

Xi also outlined a plan for country-wide measures to arrest the spread of the outbreak, including ramping up treatment for patients and distributing resources to affected areas.

Chinese scientists have stepped up efforts to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus. Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Sunday that researchers had isolated viruses and were selecting a strain, The South China Morning Post reported quoting Xu Wenbo, a director of CDC’s virus institute.