Two people from Pune, who had returned from Dubai recently and are related to each other, on Monday became first cases from Maharashtra to test positive for novel coronavirus infection, a civic Health department official said. With this, the total number of coronavirus cases in the country has risen to 47.
Samples of a man and a woman having history of travelling to Dubai tested positive in the evening, said Dr Ramchandra Hankare, Chief Health Officer, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
Both of them are currently admitted at the civic-run Naidu Hospital, he added.
District collector Naval Kishore Ram said the duo had returned to Pune from Dubai on March 1 and went to their home.
"Till March 6, they did not have any problems. On March 8, they approached us after one of them started experiencing mild symptoms. Subsequently, their samples were sent for testing which returned positive on Monday," Ram said, adding that the duo are related to each other.
Meanwhile, officials of the PMC's health department said while one of the two patients displayed mild symptoms, another does not have any symptoms.
"The duo are currently admitted in the isolation ward at Naidu Hospital. Their condition is stable," an official said.
"We are in touch with other people who came in contact with both the patients. We are closely monitoring them," he added.
Earlier, the number of cases in the country had risen to 45 with Karnataka reporting the first positive case of coronavirus. A software engineer from Karnataka, in his 40s, who had returned to Bengaluru from the US via Dubai on March 1, tested positive.
The man was admitted in the isolation ward of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases in Bengaluru on March 8. His samples were sent for testing at the National Institute of Virology in the city, and his lab results returned positive for the virus on Monday morning.
With PTI inputs
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