The 14 Italian tourists who travelled across three states before arriving from Rajasthan to New Delhi and tested positive for Covid-19 have been shifted to the Medanta hospital in Gurugram. They have been housed in isolation on a separate floor, the hospital said.
“Medanta has received, at the special request of the government, 14 asymptomatic persons suspected to have Covid-19. These patients are housed on a completely separate floor, in an isolated quarantine floor, with no contact with the rest of the hospital,” the hospital said in a statement on Thursday.
The Medanta statement further said that a dedicated medical team wearing protective gear is attending to these patients. “All items used on the floor are isolated to that floor. The isolated floor will completely contain the disease even with these asymptomatic persons. All other hospital operations are operating as normal, and there is no increased risk to patients, visitors or staff,” said the statement.
The group reportedly travelled parts of Haryana in Hisar, Agra in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan capital Jaipur.
Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma said on Wednesday, around 215 people came in contact with the 23-member Italian tourists’ group infected by coronavirus, which visited six districts between February 21 and February 29. An Indian, who was driving around these tourists, has also tested positive for the infection.
The Italian tourists and three Indians, who were part of this group, were initially admitted to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force centre in Chhawla on Tuesday.
The Centre already has 112 people, 76 Indians and 36 foreigners, since February 27 after they were evacuated by an Indian Air Force (IAF) plane from China’s Wuhan, the epicentre of the deadly coronavirus.
The first samples of these 112 people had tested negative when reports came in last week. So far, 29 positive cases of coronavirus have been reported in India.