Thrissur: A woman medico, who was India's first novel coronavirus patient being treated at the Government Medical College hospital here was discharged on Thursday.
The decision to discharge her from the hospital was taken by the Medical Board, which met and examined the results of the woman's samples that had tested negative for the second time.
The discharge of the student marked the recovery of all three cases of infection in India reported from Kerala.
Two other students - one from Alappuzha and another Kasaragod - had been discharged recently after they too tested negative for the virus in fresh tests days after being infected by it.
The woman, India's first coronavirus patient had been undergoing treatment in the isolation ward of the Medical College Hospital here since her return from Wuhan in China last month. She was diagnosed with COVID-19 on January 30.
All the three Keralites had earlier tested positive for the coronavirus on their return from Wuhan, the epicentre of the deadly outbreak that has left over 2,000 people dead in China, triggering a scare in the state.
"The health condition of the third patient at Thrissur Medical College Hospital is satisfactory. The second consecutive test result of the blood sample of the student, sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune, has returned negative," Health Minister K K Shailaja had said in a release on Wednesday.
The health department has said a total of 2,242 people are under observation across the state, out of which, eight are in isolation wards of various hospitals and other under home quarantine.
The student admitted to the isolation ward of Alappuzha Medical College was discharged on February 6 while the patient from Kasaragod sent home five days later.
Earlier, after the three students tested positive, the government had declared the coronavirus as a state calamity, but withdrew it after effective quarantine and no fresh cases being reported.
COVID-19 originates a large family of virus that causes illnesses ranging from the common cold to acute respiratory syndromes. The coronavirus started in Hubei province of China and has since spread to several countries.
The death toll from the coronavirus epidemic in China crossed the 2,000-mark on Wednesday with the death of 136 more people, while the overall confirmed cases climbed to 74,185, Chinese authorities said on Wednesday. Of the new deaths, 132 were reported from the worst-hit Hubei Province.
(With PTI inputs)
