KASARAGOD: The 23-year-old medical student who was diagnosed with COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) in Wuhan has tested negative for the virus and will go home on Sunday, said District Medical Officer (in-charge) Dr Ramdas AV. He was under observation in the isolation ward of the District Hospital since January 31.
His swabs were sent for testing to the National Institute of Virology in Pune on Tuesday and Thursday, said Dr Ramdas. “The results arrived late in the evening and both tested negative,” he said. Though his swabs tested positive twice for COVID-19 last week, the doctors said they knew it was just a matter of time before he tested negative.
He was the third person to be infected by COVID-19 in the country. The first two patients -- in Thrissur and Alappuzha -- were discharged last week. All three were medical students in China’s Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak. “With this, the state has managed to prevent secondary infection among close contacts,” said Dr Ramdas.
The patient here was given daily counselling by a psychiatrist and attended to by a general physician and ENT specialists. “All the doctors and nurses used personal protection kits while entering his room and used a different door to exit, where the kits were discarded to prevent transfer of virus,” said the DMO.