Samples of two persons in Telangana have been sent to the NIV Pune after local tests for coronavirus returned "borderline", health officials said on Wednesday, as the government stepped up precautionary measures in the backdrop of first positive case being reported in the state.
One of the two persons was working in a software company here as the virus scare hit the IT corridor at Cyberabad here with a complex being "closed" for sanitisation.
The state reported its first COVID-19 case on Monday when a 24-year-old software personnel, who recently returned from Dubai, tested positive for the virus. His condition was stated to be stable on Wednesday.
Officials said the samples sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) Pune pertain to a person with foreign travel history to Italy and a person who had come in contact with the man who tested positive for the virus.
The samples were sent as results of tests done here were on the "borderline", a senior health official said.
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State Health Minister E Rajender said in a release that there are no fresh cases of coronavirus in the state and that only one positive case has been confirmed.
Later, speaking to reporters, he said: "Report of two people will come by tomorrow. (so far) one case of coronavirus (in Telangana).There are no fresh cases."
The two are among the 47 people whose samples were tested at the state-run Gandhi hospital here on Tuesday.
According to the minister, 45 samples tested negative for the virus.
Rajender also said four family members of the Dubai- returned software professional tested negative for the virus, which has affected 29 people in the country.
He said the government has decided to set up a command control centre and different committees, including a panel for hospital management and another for surveillance, would be set up to deal with the situation arising out of COVID-19.
Managements of over 20 medical college hospitals have agreed to arrange an isolation ward in their facilities with monitoring equipment, ventilators and others.
Rajender stressed that no false information should be spread on the social media with regard to the virus.
He found fault with the evacuation of employees in the IT corridor of the city.
One building in a complex, housing software firms, was vacated for sanitisation for a day as a precautionary measure after an employee there was suspected to have contracted the virus and other employees asked to work from home.
The evacuation triggered rumors, including on social media, about the spread of the virus, forcing the authorities to clarify that operations in the building would resume on Thursday.
State Principal Secretary (IT) Jayesh Ranjan said the positive COVID-19 cases in the country are those with travel history to foreign countries.
He said the IT firm's office in which the techie, who is suspected to have contracted the virus, worked is located on the ninth floor of the building.
The firm employed 350 people and about 23 were part of the work group in which the techie worked.
Telangana Director General of Police (DGP) M Mahendar Reddy requested people not to spread rumors in social media regarding coronavirus and warned of stern action against those indulging in such acts.
In a related development, around five private schools in Secunderabad here were closed on Wednesday following requests from parents of some students.
A District Education Official told PTI the managements of the school 'voluntarily' closed the institutions and they will again function as usual from Thursday.
Meanwhile, apro-CAA meeting scheduled to be addressed byUnion Home MinisterAmitShah here on March 15 has been postponed to reduce mass physical contact of people in view of the current precautions being taken up in the country, Telangana BJP Chief Spokesperson K Krishna Saagar Rao said in a statement.
The revised scheduled would be informed n due course, he added.
Sanitisation drive was taken up in the Hyderabad Metro trains and by the state-run Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) as a precautionary measure, as suggested by Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao.
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