Bhubaneswar: The first confirmed case of novel coronavirus was reported in Odisha on Monday after a researcher who recently returned from Italy tested positive for it, a senior official said.
The 33-year-old man is being treated at Capital Hospital here, he said.
“His condition is stable and he is not showing any other complications,” state government’s chief spokesperson on coronavirus cases Subroto Bagchi told reporters.
The patient reached Delhi from Italy on March 6 and travelled to Bhubaneswar by train on 12 March .
He consulted a doctor on 13 March, complaining of fever and headache, he said.
“The man then went to Capital Hospital on 14 March where he was admitted to the isolation ward. His blood and swab samples were sent for medical examination and tests confirmed he is infected by novel coronavirus,” Bagchi said.
As the man travelled by train from Delhi to Bhubaneswar, the state government launched a “contact tracing exercise”, Bagchi, also the chairman of Odisha Skill Development Authority, said.
Efforts are on to trace all the people who are suspected to have come in contact with him, the official said.
His family members have been quarantined and kept under observation. Data of all those people who travelled with the researcher on the train is being collected so that they can be tracked and quarantined too, Bagchi added.
Also read: Indian military bans all non-essential foreign travel amid coronavirus pandemic
All attempts and precautions are being made by govt. to control COVID-19,but it is sad to inform that related mask is not available in market. Govt. should ensure that mask should be distributed at everybody’s doorstep with regulated price as one of the measures initiated by govt. Please consider on the matter.