With the discharge of a woman medico, who was country’s first novel coronavirus patient being treated at the Government Medical College hospital in Kerala on Thursday, India may have become a pathogen-free country for now, but the pathogen continues to take its toll in neighbouring nations.
One more Indian aboard a quarantined cruise ship off Japan was tested positive for the novel coronavirus and shifted to hospital, taking the number of Indian nationals infected with the virus on the vessel to eight, the Indian embassy said on Thursday. China has reported 2,118 deaths while the overall confirmed cases has climbed to 74,576.
The Indian embassy said that a total of 138 Indians, including 132 crew and 6 passengers, were among the 3,711 people on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship. In a tweet, the Indian embassy here said, “1 Indian crew who tested positive for #COVID19 among 79 new cases on #DiamondPrincess yesterday too has been shifted to hospital for treatment. All 8 Indians receiving treatment are responding well. Rest all Indians on-board are braving out the trying circumstances.”
Earlier, seven Indians were tested positive for the COVID-19. The mission said that infected Indians were responding well to the treatment.
Many countries have banned arrivals from China while major airlines have suspended flights to the country. In India, national carrier Air India has announced that it is extending the suspension of its flights to the neighbouring country till June 30.
The discharge of the women medico student marked the recovery of all three cases of infection in India reported from Kerala. Two other students — one from Alappuzha and another Kasaragod — had been discharged recently after they too tested negative for the virus in fresh tests days after being infected by it.
A total of 650 people were brought back from Wuhan in China on February 1 and 2 in two 747 Boeing Air India aircraft after the outbreak of coronavirus in that country.
Last month, the Air India had suspended its six weekly Delhi-Shanghai flights from January 31 to February 14. However, it did not restart the flight operations from February 15 onwards.
The national carrier had also suspended its Delhi-Hong Kong flights due to the coronavirus epidemic that has killed more than 2,000 people in China till date.
“Flight operations on both routes— Delhi-Shanghai and Delhi-Hong Kong — have been suspended till June 30,” an Air India spokesperson said on Thursday.
Earlier, IndiGo and SpiceJet had suspended their flight operations between India and China.
