Centre making all efforts to ensure diagnosis, treatment of Coronavirus: Health Minister

After India's first case of the coronavirus was confirmed in Kerala, Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Thursday assured that the Centre is making best efforts to diagnose and treat the disease.

"Even before the first confirmed case we were doing our best to ensure diagnosis and then to treat it if any positive cases of Coronavirus arise," Harsh Vardhan told reporters here.

He further said that an official release of information related to the first confirmed case of the disease in India will follow soon.

The Union Health Minister further said that the measures being taken by the government had led to the detection of the patient who tested positive for Novel Coronavirus.

"We are taking many measures, including screening of passengers at more than 20 airports, especially those who are coming in with a travel history of China. That is how we could trace this patient," he said.

Earlier today, the first case of the disease in India was reported from Kerala, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The patient is a student at Wuhan University in China. He is stable and is being closely monitored by a team of doctors in an isolation ward at a hospital.

The Indian government had also issued a travel advisory, asking people to refrain from travelling to China.

In addition, the thermal screening facilities, as a precautionary measure, have been extended to 21 airports now, including Gaya, Guwahati, Vizag, Varanasi and Goa.

A total of 33,552 passengers arriving in India from China in 155 flights have been screened at different airports till Monday.

The novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a new strain of coronavirus that has not been identified before. The exact source of infection of 2019 nCoV is not known yet.

Coronavirus is a large family of viruses that cause respiratory 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).

The symptoms reported in patients with nCoV include acute onset of fever, cough, and difficulty in breathing. The infection results in severe complications and even death.

China has imposed quarantine and travel restrictions, affecting the movement of 56 million people in more than a dozen cities, amid fears that the transmission rate will accelerate as hundreds of millions of Chinese travel for the Lunar New Year.

( With inputs from ANI )