Bengaluru family tested for Coronavirus after neighbours complain

A Bengaluru-based family of five living in an apartment on Bannerghatta Road was tested for the Coronavirus after it emerged that the family had visited China recently.

On Thursday, the family had shut their doors on a team of doctors from the health and family welfare department who visited to check them for Coronavirus. The family’s neighbours alerted officials that the family had recently returned from China. 

However, the family was reportedly unwilling to meet the doctors. On Friday, an ambulance with staffers arrived at the apartment again and the family then agreed to visit the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD), Times of India reported. 

According to Dr Deepak UG, nodal officer, coronavirus isolation ward at RGICD, the family did not travel to Wuhan but visited another province in China before returning to India on January 23. The family was also screened at the airport. "When they visited the hospital, they were asymptomatic and did not have fever or chest pain. They had gastrointestinal problems. Their blood and sputum samples were collected and their test results are awaited," Dr Deepak told TNM. 

Though in this case the family had come back from China, there have been other instances in Bengaluru where panic is being spread for no reason. One message that is viral on Whatsapp groups says, "Today's breaking news now...19 ppl r affected with CORONA VIRUS only in WILSON GARDEN Surrounding areas ...pls friends kindly update it to family and friends too.....all of us take care...." The District Health Officer confirmed to TNM that this was absolutely false.

Meanwhile, 20 people with a travel history of visiting China recently have tested negative for the Coronavirus in Bengaluru. Only one man's test results are awaited and the patient is currently in an isolation ward in RGICD.

Between January 20 and 31, 4,367 travellers were screened at the Bengaluru International Airport including three travellers with a history of travelling to Wuhan in the past two weeks. None of the travellers tested positive on the thermal scanner. 

The Karnataka government has identified four private hospitals where suspected persons with travel history are quarantined. Their blood and sputum samples will be sent  to either a lab at Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) or a branch of the National Institute of Virology located near RGICD as they are the only two authorised for testing.