Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have confirmed that an Indian expat has been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), taking the total number of cases in the country to eight.
In a statement on Monday, the UAE's Ministry of Health and Prevention said the Indian national was infected after he interacted with a recently diagnosed person, reports the Gulf News.
The Ministry of Health and Prevention announced today the eighth confirmed case of new #coronavirus in the UAE, which is an Indian national who had interacted with a recently diagnosed person.#mohap_uae
— وزارة الصحة ووقاية المجتمع الإماراتية - MOHAP UAE (@mohapuae) February 10, 2020
Of the eight cases, one is in intensive care, while six others were stable and one has already recovered, the Ministry added.
UAE's first case of coronavirus was a 73-year old Chinese citizen, Liu Yujia. On February, the Ministry announced that Liu Yujia recovered.
On January 29, the Ministry reported that a family of four, who had arrived in UAE from China's Wuhan January 16, presented with the symptoms.
The sixth and seventh cases were reported on February 8 following periodic screening, conducted to identify people with symptoms of nCoV. The two are Chinese and Filipino nationalities. They are under observation.
In an interview to Gulf News, on how the first case of coronavirus in UAE was treated, Dr Smitha Muraletharan of Aster Hospital said that only (about) one in four develop a severe form of the virus, while in other cases, one’s immune system will fight it off. “Mild infection patients can be quarantined in houses. Patients exhibiting severe infections can be stabilised in a hospital quarantine,” she is quoted as saying.
In India, although three cases (from Kerala) were confirmed, two have been tested negative after a re-test.
In China, where the outbreak's origin is linked to a fish market in Wuhan, Hubei province, the country's National Health Commission on Tuesday raised the number of deaths to 1,016 and the number of infected people to 42,638.
To date, all but two deaths - in the Philippines and Hong Kong - have occurred in mainland China and, although about 20 countries have identified cases. China accounts for about 99% of those infected.
(With inputs from IANS)