Bengaluru, March 12 (IANS): A 26-year-old man returning from Greece tested positive for COVID-19, becoming the fifth positive case in Karnataka, a health official said on Thursday.
"A 26-year-old male patient who came from Greece has tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. The patient is admitted and isolated at hospital and is stable," state health department's Information, Education and Communication (IEC) special officer Suresh Shastri told IANS.
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According to the department, all the primary contacts of the new case have been traced which proved to be asymptomatic but advised home quarantine and follow up.
Similarly, all the primary contacts of the other four positive cases continue to be under medical surveillance amid no symptoms.
On Thursday, the state government identified 20 procedure codes under central government health scheme Ayushman Bharat and Arogya Karnataka scheme to cover hospital expenses for patients.
As on Thursday, the number of persons admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases and other city hospitals for selected isolated observation stands at 12.
In the district hospitals, two people are being monitored at Hassan, three in Dakshina Kannada and one in Ballari.
"As many as 579 samples of symptomatic persons were collected for testing and 460 samples have returned negative," said an official statement.
Nearly 906 people are going through home quarantine across the state while 1,220 people have enrolled for observation.
Across the state, 1.01 lakh passengers have been thermal-screened for the virus till now at the Kempegowda International Airport in the city and the Mangaluru International Airport.
Another 5,387 passengers were also checked for the virus at Karwar and Mangaluru seaports.
Meanwhile, the Bengaluru regional centre of Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts cancelled a lecture for Saturday.
Similarly, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) suspended employee fingerprint biometric attendance system as a preventive measure to counter coronavirus threat.