Man with fever briefly goes missing from hospital, quarantined

A 25-year-old man running a fever created a flutter as he went missing briefly from a hospital here where he was sent on arrival from Malaysia after screening for coronavirus but returned on his own and has been admitted to the isolation ward, officials said on Tuesday.

His samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology lab in Alappuzha for tests, doctors said.

The man had returned from Malaysia on Monday with fever and was referred to the Kalamassery Government Medical College in the wee hours after thermal screening at the international airport here.

He was noticed missing from the Out Patient wing of the hospital on Monday night, following which authorities informed the Ernakulam District Collector and the police.

The man later returned to hospital and is currently under observation in the isolation ward for Covid 19 patients, district health authorities said.

Youth Congress workers staged a protest alleging negligence on the part of the health authorities in handling the case.

Last Saturday, a36-year-old man admitted to the medical collegehospital here and tested negative for coronavirus had died due to pneumonia.

Kerala had reported the country's first three Coronavirus cases but all the patients had been discharged from hospitals after they recovered and tested negative for the infection, which has claimed over 3,100 lives and affected 90,000 people in more than 60 countries.