American quarantined in Nepal on suspicion of novel coronavirus infection

An American tourist was quarantined in a hospital here on the suspicion of being infected with the novel SARS-like coronavirus, authorities told ANI on Sunday.

The American, aged 39, was taken to Suraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital after arriving in the Nepali capital from Wuhan. He had developed signs of coronavirus, health officials confirmed.

"We shifted him to the hospital in an ambulance at 6 in the evening. He was feverish and had just arrived from the Chinese city of Wuhan," Gopal Pandey, coordinator of a health desk set up at Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA) told ANI over the phone.

Various health desks have been set up at the airports to screen the passengers arriving from China as well as Hong Kong.

"We are not sure whether he has been infected or not. It's just a precautionary method we have adopted. Anyone coming from China can be quarantined in suspicion of having the coronavirus and sent to the hospital for further confirmation," added Pandey.

The Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital has set up an isolation ward of six-bed capacities in the wake of new strains of coronavirus, which has so far claimed lives of over four dozen people in the Chinese mainland.

Nepal, on Friday, became first the South Asian nation to confirm the case of the novel virus, which was detected after a student, infected with the virus, showed symptoms after returning to the Himalayan nation from Wuhan.

Over 1,000 people are confirmed to be infected with the virus while many others quarantined by health authorities in order to stop the disease from further spreading.