Nine under watch in Maha for suspected coronavirus infection

A 49-year-old resident of Mumbai has become the ninth person in Maharashtra to be kept under observation for possible exposure to novel Coronavirus, a health official said here on Wednesday.

The man had returned on January 21 from Wuhan, believed to be the epicentre of the deadly virus, he said.

"He was admitted in civic-run Kasturba Hospital on Tuesday, after he developed fever and cough on January 24," Maharashtra State Disease Surveillance Officer Dr Pradeep Awte told PTI.

He clarified that the man under observation didn't show any nCoV symptoms when he had returned to Mumbai.

"A total of nine patients, six of them in Mumbai, are currently under observation in the state for suspected coronavirus infection," he said.

Of the rest, two patients are admitted in a hospital in Pune and one in Nanded.

Dr Awte said 3997 people have been screened so far at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai for possible exposure to the virus, but no positive case has been found so far in Maharashtra.

The government had already appealed to people who have been to China and have returned after January 1 to report to state-run hospitals if they are suffering from cough and mild fever.

Novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses ranging from common cold to acute respiratory syndromes. It has emerged from a seafood and animal market in Wuhan city and is suspected to have spread to as far as the United States.

According to the World Health Organisation, the common symptoms of the novel coronavirus strain include respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.