Thiruvanthapuram: The Kerala government on Friday withdrew the "state calamity" warning status issued in the wake of the novel coronavirus (nCoV) scare as no new positive cases of infection were detected over the last few days, even as more than 3,000 people are still under observation.
The decision was taken as the situation in the state has improved over the past two days, said Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja. She said that of the 3,014 people under watch, 2,953 were home quarantined and 61 in hospitals due to minor symptoms of the virus.
"Samples of all those who came in close contact with the three people who tested positive for coronavirus have tested negative," she said. "We have received the result of the repeat sample of the positive patient in Alappuzha, which was sent for retesting at the National Institute of Virology in Pune. It came out negative."
The first patient was in close contact with five people, the second patient with one person and the third patient with two people.
"Considering all these circumstances, the government has decided to withdraw the 'state calamity' alert. But that does not mean that we are lowering our guard. The (28-day) quarantine period will continue. Those who come from affected areas will still have to report to health officials," said Shailaja.
The Kerala government on February 3 had declared the coronavirus epidemic as a “state calamity” after a third student had tested positive for the infection. All three positive coronavirus cases in the country so far — reported from Thrissur, Alappuzha and Kasaragod districts — are Keralite students, two of them medicos, of a university at Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak.
Currently 3,014 people are under observation in the state of which 61 are in isolation wards and the rest in home quarantine.
The state health department has been on high alert since the outbreak was declared in China and the World Health Organization (WHO) issued guidelines.
Kerala has a large number of students in China, especially in Wuhan, and a lot of people also frequently visit the country for their business.
The death toll in the epidemic rose to 637 on Thursday, with 73 new mortalities, while the total number of confirmed cases has crossed 31,000, Chinese health officials said.
Of the 73 casualties on Thursday, Hubei province and its provincial capital Wuhan reported 69 deaths while Jilin, Henan, Guangdong and Hainan provinces reported one each.
China and more than 27 countries, including India, are struggling to cope up with the spiralling virus mostly spread by travellers from Wuhan and Hubei province.
(With inputs from PTI)
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