COVID-19: Iran-returned Army officer under observation in MP

An Army officer who returned from Iran last month has been isolated in Madhya Pradesh for suspected exposure to the coronavirus.

However, there were conflicting versions of where he was isolated. A health official said the 32-year-old officer had been quarantined at the military hospital at Mhow near Indore, while senior Army officials said he was at home.

The conflicting versions could not be immediately reconciled.

The officer had returned from Tehran, Iran's capital, on February 25.

Dr Santosh Sisodia, district in-charge of Integrated Disease Surveillance Program, claimed that the officer was admitted to isolation ward of the military hospital on Tuesday when he complained of sore throat.

"His condition is fine. He has been kept under medical observation in an isolation ward. His blood and swab samples are being sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune for testing," Sisodia added.

Iran announced on Tuesday that 11 more people had died from the new coronavirus on Monday, taking the death toll in the country to 77. In all, 2,336 people have been infected in Iran since the COVID-19 outbreak.

Meanwhile, a 27-year-old woman, who was studying in Italy and admitted to Indore's state-run Maharaja Yashwantrao Hospital for the past two days for suspected exposure to COVID-19 virus, tested negative, an official said.

"She had attended a party in Italy a few days ago and a person who was present there later tested positive for the virus. It scared her and she returned to Indore on Saturday," the official said.

Italy, Europe's worst-affected country with around 1,700 coronavirus infections, said that deaths, as of Monday, stood at 52.