New Delhi: Twelve more people have tested positive for coronavirus in the country – six in Kerala and three each in Karnataka and Pune, authorities said Tuesday as the total cases went up to 59 and amid COVID-19 scare, a combination of two anti-HIV drugs was used for the first time in India in the treatment of two patients.
The health ministry said the total number of confirmed cases has risen to 50, adding the rest are being retested for confirmation. Once the fresh cases declared by the state governments are taken into account, the figure will go up to 59.
In Karnataka, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said four persons have been confirmed for coronavirus, including three new cases. In Pune also, three persons tested positive, a day after two cases were reported.
In Jaipur, the combination of lopinavir and ritonavir, both second-line HIV drugs, was administered was administered on an elderly Italian couple undergoing treatment for COVID -19 at the SMS Hospital.
The Drug Controller General of India approved ‘restricted use’ of these medications for treating those affected by novel coronavirus after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) sought their emergency approval.
SMS Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr D S Meena said the Italian man and his wife had developed severe respiratory problems following which a decision was taken to put them on the combination of lopinavir and ritonavir. According to officials, consent of the patients was taken before the drugs were administered.
In Karnataka, a software engineer who returned from the US March 1 tested positive on Monday, becoming the first COVID-19 patient in the state. According to health department officials, his wife and daughter too tested positive for the virus on Tuesday.
Another person, who had travelled from America via London and arrived March 8 in Bangalore, also tested positive, officials said.
A day after two persons related to each other tested positive for novel coronavirus in Pune, the Maharashtra health department said that the total number of cases has gone up to five.
The condition of all of them was stable and they were undergoing treatment in the isolation ward of civic-run Naidu Hospital, said an official.
PTI
