A patient in Kerala's Thrissur district has tested positive for novel coronavirus and has been kept in isolation at a hospital. The patient, a student of Wuhan University, is stable and is being closely monitored.

India has reported its first confirmed case of novel coronavirus in Thrissur district of Kerala. The patient is a student studying in Wuhan University, China and had recently returned to India.

In a statement, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) of India said the student is from Kerala. "The patient has tested positive for novel coronavirus and is in isolation in the hospital. The patient is stable and is being closely monitored," the statement said.

The 2019-novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) epidemic that has concerned health experts worldover started in China's Wuhan city early December last year and has so far claimed more than 170 lives.

Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja said 20 samples were sent for tests out of which one was found to be positive for novel coronavirus.

"The patient had returned from Wuhan in China and is now kept in isolation at General Hospital in Thrissur. She is stable," the minister said.

The health minister said the government has already set up a control room.

"We have directed all hospitals, including private hospitals, to monitor patients coming with similar symptoms (of coronavirus). The health department is all set to isolate patients and start treatment," Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja said.Coronavirus

Meanwhile, responding to the developments, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said, "It is an unfortunate turn of events. One case is positive and we have one more test to do. We are taking adequate measures. We have dealt with an outbreak like this before. We have to take precautionary measures because it spreads from person to person."

In Kerala, one person each from Thrissur, Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta and Malappuram and three from Ernakulam district have been kept in isolation wards of various health centres, news agency PTI reported.

As a precautionary measure, health authorities in India have placed many people under medical watch. Various airports in the country have started screening passengers arriving from China for symptoms of coronavirus infection.

News agency Reuters reported that a senior Indian government official said bringing Indian nationals from Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus, was not the best option due to the risk of infection but increased pressure from the citizens, most of them students, and their parents had forced them to keep an aircraft on standby.

This week, India readied a state-carrier airplane to travel to Wuhan but was waiting for a nod from Chinese authorities who were trying to sequence the whole evacuation process.

"Only those nationals who don't have the virus will be airlifted, they will be brought into a quarantine facility outside Delhi," the official said, requesting anonymity.