Coronavirus: 5 admitted to ITBP facility in Delhi shifted to Safdarjung Hospital

Five people admitted to an ITBP facility here after being evacuated from coronavirus-affected Wuhan in China were shifted to the Safdarjung Hospital on Tuesday, officials said. Among those shifted are three men and two women, they said.

The five have been shifted as a "precautionary measure" after they showed basic symptoms like cough and sneezing and some had a medical history. A total of 406 people have been quarantined at the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) facility in Delhi's Chhawla area since the last week after they were brought in two batches from Wuhan onboard separate Air India flights.

ITBP spokesperson Vivek Kumar Pandey said the center now has "401 inmates and they are being well taken care of". Another official said samples of all the people quarantined at the facility have been collected by doctors in coordination with the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) and they are being sent to laboratories in AIIMS and Pune for further tests.

Over 600 Indians were evacuated from Wuhan. The remaining evacuees have been kept at another quarantine facility set up by the Army in Manesar (Gurgaon).

According to Chinese government officials, the death toll from the coronavirus epidemic has risen to more than 420 while the number of those affected by the deadly disease has crossed 20,000. India has reported three cases of coronavirus so far, all from Kerala.

Wuhan, Hubei's capital, is the epicenter of the outbreak.