Kerala declares coronavirus as ‘state disaster’ after 3 test positive

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 03: The Kerala government on Monday, 3 February, declared coronavirus a 'state disaster' after the third person tested positive for the virus in Kasargod.

State Health Minister K K Shailaja told reporters that the government has declared the epidemic as a 'state calamity' to take all necessary steps to ensure the outbreak is effectively controlled.

The decision was taken at the apex committee of the State Disaster Management Authority chaired by Chief Secretary Tom Jose.

Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry on Monday issued a travel advisory informing the public to refrain from travelling to China.

Earlier in the day, India reported a third case of novel coronavirus with another person from Kerala, who recently returned from China, testing positive for the infection, the Health Ministry said.

"The patient has tested positive for novel coronavirus and is in isolation in the hospital. The patient is stable and is being closely monitored," the ministry said.

The patient has travel history from Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, in China.

The Health Ministry on Monday updated its travel advisory, which was issued on Sunday, and asked people to refrain from travelling to China in view of the deadly coronavirus outbreak in its Hubei province and said travellers on return from the neighbouring country could be quarantined.

As many as 130 samples have been tested of which 128 have been found to be negative so far.

The death toll in the coronavirus epidemic, the epicentre of which is China, soared to 361 with 57 deaths on Sunday alone while the number of confirmed cases climbed to 17,205, Chinese health officials announced on Monday.