Samples of 17 persons includingtwo students of a Law University and a CRPF jawan from Kerala who were screened for possible coronavirus infection have tested negative, a health official in Chhattisgarh said on Saturday.So far no confirmed case of the coronavirus has been reported in Chhattisgarh, he added."Laboratory reports of 17 samples were received on Friday evening. None of them tested positive," he said.Two of the suspected patients were students of Hidayatullah National Law University in Raipur district who were suffering from cough, cold and fever after returning from their home states after Holi vacation, he said.Another sample was of a CRPF jawan posted in the insurgency-hit Sukma district of Chhattisgarh. He had returned to duty on March 10 after 30-day vacation at his hometown in Kerala.To date, samples of 63 persons who were suspected to have been exposed to the infection have tested negative in the state, the official said.Besides, samples of three others were rejected by the nodal laboratory as they did not fit the criteria of suspected patients as per the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research, he said.The samples are being tested at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Raipur.Among those whose samples were tested, nine persons completed 28 days of surveillance while others are in home isolation and are under observation.Most of them had either recently traveled to coronavirus-affected countries, or had come in contact with persons suspected to have been exposed to the virus.All schools, colleges, universities, anganwadi child care centres, public libraries, swimming pools, water parks and gyms in the state have been closed till March 31 to prevent the spread of the virus.School examinations will be held as per the schedule during this period, while exams at colleges and universities will be held for only final years or final semesters of undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
