Second Coronavirus case reported from Kerala

New Delhi/Alapuzha: India on Sunday reported a second case of novel Coronavirus with another person from Kerala, who recently returned from China, testing positive for the infection.

The condition of both patients was stated to be "stable" and not serious, officials said.

The second patient is also a student from Wuhan in China, the epicentre of the epidemic. The patient had returned to Kerala on January 24, the state government said.

Meanwhile, three persons who were admitted to a hospital in Jaipur have tested negative for the novel Coronavirus, officials said.

The country's first novel Coronavirus case was reported from Thrissur in Kerala on Thursday with a woman medical student who returned from Wuhan testing positive for the infection.

Confirming the second case, Kerala Health Minister K K Shailaja said the condition of the student, currently admitted to the isolation ward at the Alapuzha Medical College Hospital, was "stable".

Earlier in the day, the minister said in Kollam that the state was awaiting the results of tests conducted on the patient from the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune.

The first patient, a woman medical student, is in an isolation ward at the Thrissur Medical College and Hospital.

"We are trying to ensure that the virus does not spread. The two patients, who have tested positive for the virus, are stable. Their condition is not serious. But we are monitoring them closely," she said.

Since the Coronavirus outbreak in China, Kerala, which is thickly populated, has been on high alert as a large number of students from the state are studying in the University of Wuhan.

Meanwhile, the newly identified Coronavirus claimed its first life outside China, a 44-year-old Chinese man in the Philippines, as restrictions on citizen's movements inside China spread to a city far from the epicentre and the death toll surpassed 300.

Though hundreds of people have died from the Coronavirus since the outbreak began in central China, all deaths had, until now, been in China itself. Some 150 people outside China have been sickened by the virus.

Governments, global companies and international health organisations rushed to contain the spread of a SARS-like Coronavirus. Global airlines have suspended or scaled back direct flights to China's major cities. As containment efforts intensify, the likelihood of the virus disrupting global businesses and the world's second-largest economy appears to be growing.

In another development, China's central Hunan province reported that it had culled almost 18,000 chickens after an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in statement on its website.

The statement didn't say when the outbreak occurred, or when the cull happened. Hunan is next to Hubei, the epicentre of the separate Coronavirus outbreak. The avian influenza, found in a farm in Shaoyang City, killed 4,500 chickens, more than half the farm's flock, the ministry added. The city culled almost 18,000 poultry after the outbreak. The statement said the outbreak was of a "highly pathogenic subtype" of the H5N1 flu.

With agency inputs