FILE - In this illustration provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in January 2020 shows the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV). This virus was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China. A woman in the San Francisco Bay Area who became ill after returning from a trip to China has become the ninth person in the U.S. to test positive for a new virus, health authorities said Sunday, Feb. 2, 2020. (CDC via AP, File)
Bodinayakanur: Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on Monday said hospitals and border areas were being closely monitored to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the state. Visiting the town, which is his constituency, for ameeting with the public and receiving grievance petitions from them, Panneerselvam told newsmen that intense monitoring of the sick was on in the areas bordering Kerala by the health departments of both the states to prevent the coronavirus from spreading.
Stating that some people had arrived from China, the ground zero of the coronavirus, to Kerala bordering Bodinayakanur, he said precautionary steps were being taken. The farmers of the border districts have been advised not to shake hands or talk without covering their mouth and nose while sneezing or coughing. He said thousands of farmers were travelling between the border districts every day and were being monitored. People from Tamil Nadu have also come back from China and they were also kept under close observation by the doctors, the Deputy Chief Minister said.
After receiving petitions from the public, he directed the officials to take action on them. Earlier today, the third case of Coronavirus was confirmed in Kerala. More than 1,7300 people across the globe have so far been infected from the novel Coronavirus. Meanwhile, Chinese scientists have said they have more evidence that the new virus that recently emerged in China likely originated in bats. In two papers published Monday in the journal Nature, scientists report that genome sequences from several patients in Wuhan show the virus is closely related to the viruses that cause Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.
