Four samples test negative for novel coronavirus in India

The Union Health Ministry on Friday said the ICMR-NIV, Pune, has said that four samples, two from Mumbai and one each from Bengaluru and Hyderabad, have tested negative for novel coronavirus (nCoV).

One of Mumbai patients has tested positive for Rhinovirus, one of the routine common cold virus, the Health Ministry said late on Friday evening.

Earlier, officials of the Health Ministry said that three persons -- two from Mumbai and one from Hyderabad -- who returned from China, have been put under observation for the novel coronavirus (nCoV) even as the Health Ministry said that nobody in India has tested positive for the infectious disease so far, which has affected a large number of people in China.

"As on January 24, as many as 20,844 passengers from 96 flights have been screened for Novel Coronavirus symptoms. Today, 4,082 passengers were screened in 19 flights. No nCoV case has been detected in the country so far. However, three persons have been put under observation," the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Friday.

The three suspected cases have been kept under observation, the Union Health Ministry officials told ANI here.

A travel advisory issued has been extended to 12 more airports in the country in addition to the existing seven.

"National Institute of Virology, Pune, is fully geared up to test samples of nCoV and ten other laboratories under the Indian Council of Medical Research's Viral Research and Diagnostics Laboratories network are also equipped to test such samples if a need arises," said a statement of the Health Ministry.

The Ministry has taken other measures to control the possible spread of the disease.

Till January 23, over 550 cases of pneumonia with nCoV were confirmed in China and a total of 17 people have died. Cases have been reported from more than 20 provinces including Taiwan, and municipalities as well.