2 more test coronavirus positive in Karnataka

Two more persons, including a young woman, tested positive for coronavirus in Karnataka, state Health Minister B. Sriramulu said on Tuesday.

"We have two more COVID-19 cases, taking the total confirmed cases to 10 in Karnataka," said Sriramulu in a Kannada tweet.

The new cases are of 20-year-old woman who travelled from the UK and a 60-year-old man who came in contact with the 76-year-old patient (since deceased) in Kalaburagi.

Kalaburagi district officials identified the 60-year-old man as the doctor who treated the septuagenarian victim.

"Both are admitted in the isolation wards in designated hospitals in Bengaluru and Kalaburagi," said Sriramulu. Kalaburagi is 575km north of Bengaluru.

Following the doctor's positive report, health officials were now trying to identify other patients he had treated since the outbreak. The doctor's family too has been quarantined at home.

The 76-year-old man died on March 10 and was India's first COVID-19 victim. He had returned from Saudi Arabia on February 29 and was under treatment at Kalaburagi and Hyderabad.

"As the new patients are being treated in hospital, I am confident they will recover quickly," asserted Sriramulu.

The minister is visiting Mangaluru in the state's western region to review steps taken in the state's coastal districts to prevent the coronavirus spread.

Meanwhile, Yalagi villagers in Yadgir district have confined themselves in their homes on return of three persons from Dubai even though the returnees have not displayed any coronavirus symptoms. IANS