India on Thursday
said a patient in the southern state of Kerala had been tested positive for
novel coronavirus, the first case in the country of the virus which originated
in China and has so far killed 170.
“The patient was a student of Wuhan University in China. “The
patient is stable and in isolation at a hospital,’’ India’s government said in
a statement. A senior Indian government official said bringing Indian nationals
from Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus was not the best option due to the risk
of infection but increased pressure from the citizens.
The official added that most of the nationals are students
and their parents had forced them to keep an aircraft on standby. This week,
India readied a state-carrier airplane to travel to Wuhan however was waiting
for a nod from Chinese authorities who were trying to sequence the whole
evacuation process. “Only those nationals who don’t have the virus will be
airlifted, they will be brought into a quarantine facility outside Delhi,” the
official said, requesting anonymity. Report says demands from South Asian nationals
intensified after countries such as the U.S. and Japan began pulling out their
nationals
