Back from Wuhan, two MP students test negative for coronavirus

Two Indian students undergoing treatment at a hospital here in Madhya Pradesh after returning from coronavirus-affected China have tested negative for the infection, an official said on Monday.

The students were admitted at the isolation ward of the government-run Maharaja Yashvantrao Holkar Hospital (MYHH) on their return from China where the novel coronavirus has killed 360 people till now.

The blood and swab samples' reports of the students -- aged 21 and 22 -- received from Pune-based National Institute of Virology (NIV), have found they were not infected with the new coronavirus strain, the hospital's superintendent, Dr P S Thakur, said.

We received their reports today," he added.

The duo, natives of Madhya Pradesh and studying medicine in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of coronavirus outbreak, had complained of cold on Thursday.

The next day, they were quarantined at MYHH and kept under surveillance, Thakur said, adding their blood and swab samples were sent to the NIV for analysis.

He said the students, hailing from Indore and Khargone district, may be discharged from the hospital in a day or two.

They would be asked to take rest at home for a week, Thakur added.

Earlier, a 50-year-old woman and her 21-year-old son, who was studying medicine in Wuhan, had also tested negative for the deadly virus.

The mother-son duo, residents of Ujjain, had returned home on January 13. They were put under medical observation in their hometown after they complained of pneumonia-like symptoms last week.

The coronavirus is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses ranging from the common cold to acute respiratory syndromes, but the virus that has killed people in China is a novel strain and not seen before.

Common symptoms of the novel coronavirus strain include respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough and shortness of breath, according to the WHO.

The WHO has declared the coronavirus epidemic as a global health emergency.

The deadly virus - which first emerged in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province - has spread to 25 countries, including India (three confirmed cases have been reported from Kerala), the US and the UK.