1st +ve Indian wants to return to Wuhan

 1st +ve Indian wants to return to Wuhan

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Preetu.Nair@timesgroup.com

30.01.2022

Kochi: A young woman from Thrissur was chasing her childhood dream of becoming a doctor at a medical college in Wuhan, like many more from her home state Kerala. Then the unthinkable happened — she became patient one, the first person in India to test positive for Covid detected in the Chinese city. That was two years ago: January 30, 2020.

She has moved on, though. She wants to return to Wuhan to complete her course. “We believe Covid is manageable now. What is uncertain is my daughter’s career,” said her father. 

Those were uncertain times too when she dashed out of Wuhan as the virus exploded on humanity. She reached home about a week before she tested positive, narrowly escaping harsh Chinese measures as Wuhan and international borders were sealed to stop the infection from slipping out into the community.

She doesn’t want to recall her ordeal, or be reminded of it. In the past two years, she was studying remotely from home. She completed her MBBS course online last December and passed the exams. But she has to go back to her college because Chinese  rules mandate that MBBS students do a 52-week in-person internship — equivalent to a house surgeon — in hospitals after final year of graduation. It’s a must to get the degree.

The college in Wuhan has been off-limits, though. The pandemic has been peaking, plateauing and plummeting, but not ending.

“We request the Centre to take up the matter with the Chinese authorities for the sake of Indian medical students studying there,” her father said.

‘Cases declining, but maintain vigil’

New Delhi: Even as the number of Covid-19 cases is showing early indications of a declining trend, the central government on Saturday cautioned against complacency. There’s still a need to be vigilant and not lower the guard even though active Covid cases in most states and positivity rate have shown a fall in the last two weeks, health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in a meeting on Saturday. Health ministers and officials from Odisha, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and WB were present in the meet.

TNN