NEW DELHI: Four people were tested for nCoV from Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. All of them have tested negative for the virus.
The government said that till Friday, 20,844 passengers from 96 flights have been screened for the virus.
On Friday alone 4,082 passengers were screened in 19 flights. Also, travel advisory has been extended to 12 more airports in addition to the current seven.
The development comes even as the total fatalities from the little-understood virus reached 26 and China where over 800 cases of the infection have been confirmed so far announced that a 1000-bedded hospital will be built in Wuhan- the epicenter of the virus outbreak—within 10 days.
As per the World Health Organisation, the 2019-nCoV infection can cause mild to severe disease and be fatal in some.
Commonly observed symptoms include fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.
In more severe cases, the infection can cause pneumonia or severe acute respiratory syndrome, particularly in those with other chronic underlying health conditions, and even death.
“Based on current information, an animal source seems the most likely primary source of this outbreak, with at least some human to human transmission occurring,” said a statement by WHO which stopped short of declaring it a global health emergency due to limited number of overseas cases so far.
“However, we are still in the early stages of understanding this new virus, where it came from and how it affects people – including how severe the infection is and how well it spreads from person to person,” it said on Friday.
Meanwhile AIIMS, New Delhi announced that it was preparing itself to tackle the cases of virus outbreak by keeping some isolated beds for the suspects who might be brought into the hospital.