Pb: Police steps in to get suspected coronavirus patient admitted to hospital

The district authorities in Punjab's Faridkot took police help to deal with a suspected coronavirus patient who initially refused to get himself admitted to an isolation ward at a government hospital.

The deputy commissioner told police to arrest him if he continued to resist.

However, the need for arrest of the patient did not arise as he himself got admitted to the isolation ward after he was counselled, officials said on Tuesday.

The man had returned from Canada via China and got himself checked at the Kotkapura civil hospital in Faridkot on Monday.

Thereafter, he was advised to get himself admitted to Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital in Faridkot as per guidelines issued by the Union government, the officials said.

However, the man refused to get admitted to the isolation ward and instead left for home, said Faridkot Civil Surgeon Rajinder Kumar.

When the matter was brought to the notice of the higher authorities, the district administration asked the Faridkot senior superintendent of police to take necessary action.

"Please issue instructions to police officers concerned to assist medical officers of the health department to keep this patient under isolation," the deputy commissioner wrote to the SSP.

"In case if there is any resistance, the person shall be arrested immediately and kept in isolation guarded by the police," read the letter.

Kotkapura Deputy Superintendent of Police Balkar Singh said the patient got himself admitted to the government hospital after he was counselled.

The samples of the patient have been sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune, for testing.

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

The virus - which first emerged in Wuhan city 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.