4 with suspected Coronavirus leave Nagpur hospital without informing

PTI, Mar 14, 2020, 2:44 PM IST

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Nagpur: Four persons admitted to a government-run hospital in Maharashtra’s Nagpur for suspected coronavirus returned home on Friday night without informing authorities. They were later traced and asked to return to the hospital, police said this morning.

Their test results are awaited.

“Four persons, including two women, had come to the Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital (IGGMCH) on Friday morning to give their blood samples for suspected coronavirus infection. They were kept in the isolation ward. However, at night they left the hospital without informing the authorities,” a police official said.

“We later traced them and contacted them on phone. They have been asked to return to the hospital. They told us that they were annoyed over the delay in getting the test results and also over sharing the toilet with coronavirus positive patients admitted in the hospital,” he added.

So far, three persons have been found positive for coronavirus infection in Nagpur, and Maharashtra has reported at least 19 cases so far.

Two people have lost their lives due to coronavirus in the country so far, and over 80 have tested positive – including 17 foreigners of which 16 are Italians and one Canadian.

Amid rising coronavirus cases in India, the government has asked people not to panic, saying no community transmission of the virus has been observed and there has only been a few cases of local transmission so far and that is “not a health emergency” in India at present.

The government on Wednesday suspended all visas, barring a few categories like diplomatic and employment, in an attempt to prevent the spread of coronavirus. It has asked Indian nationals to avoid all non-essential travel abroad.