45 days old baby is Narayanpet's first COVID patient

Hyderabad: A 45 days-old-baby is the first Covid-19 case reported in Narayanpet district of Telangana, which has managed to keep away from coronavirus, untill today. The baby boy, whose test results were announced on April 17th, has been shifted out of the district to Hyderabad’s Niloufer hospital. While, his parents and grandmother are under quarantined.

Following the first case, the Narayanpet administration are perplexed , since the baby has no travel history barring hospital visits. Also none from the district, so far, has contracted the virus. Inspection resulted in tracing out 20 contacts of the baby, which includes the doctors who delivered and treated the infant.

Ms Hari Chandana, District Collector of Narayanpet told NewsMeter, “We still don't know the source nor can we say the baby contracted virus in the district, because we have reported zero cases . His parents are shepherds and they haven’t moved outside the village.”

The administration on the other hand, doubts hospital staff to be virus carriers . According to them, the baby could have been infected while he was under treatment for fever at a hospital.

“The patient (baby) was given vaccine on April 8. Three days later, that is on April 11, he suffered from fever. The temperature can also be due to vaccination, the family assumed . From Kotakonta he was referred to Mahabubnagar Government Hospital, and from there he finally referred to Niloufer Hospital in Hyderabad. Since the last five days the baby has been shifting hospitals. We suspect, he could have been infected from Mahabubnagar where he was was under treatment for two days or in Hyderabad's Niloufer hospital,” the Collector further added.

As on April 17, the total number of positive cases in Telangana is 766 . While Hyderabad has around 286 active cases, the highest in the state.