Nepal quarantines 2 amid Coronavirus scare

Two people who returned to Kathmandu from China have been kept under observation at a government hospital in the Nepali capital, hospital authorities said on Saturday, due to possible exposure to the deadly new strain of SARS-like virus that has killed dozens of people and infected over 800, most of them in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

"Two persons who have returned from China are under observation at the hospital," Dr Sher Bhahadur Pun from Teku Hospital in Kathmandu told .

On Friday, Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population confirmed the first case of coronavirus after the examination of bodily fluid of a student, who recently came back from Wuhan.

Nepal is the sixth nation in the world, where the case of the virus has been confirmed. The infected person, 30-year old PhD student was quarantined at Sukraraj Tropical Hospital for about five days and was discharged on the 17th of this month.

The sample of his bodily fluids was sent to Hong Kong after his discharge confirmed him to be infected with the new strains of the SARS-like virus.

The statement, the ministry, further said that previously suspected person is kept under observation and those who came under his contact are being identified.

The virus, which has no effective vaccine, was reported on January 16 in Japan, the first case outside China and its territories.

Coronaviruses (nCoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). A novel coronavirus is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans.

Common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, the infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and even death.

However, the World Health Orgstion (WHO) on Thursday said that it was 'too early' to declare the outbreak of coronavirus in China as a public health emergency of international concern.

( With inputs from ANI )