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Vinaya Chandran knew exactly what he wanted to do even before he was released from the army quarantine camp in Manesar, Haryana—eat a home-cooked meal with his family in his hometown Alappuzha in Kerala. “The camp has looked after us well. We have all become close friends. But the food is not what I am used to,” says the 31-year-old medical student from Wuhan University, China. He and the 647 other Indians evacuated from Wuhan on January 30 and February 1 in two batches were released on February 19 after they tested negative for the Novel Coronavirus (nCoV). However, to avoid taking chances, each person has been home quarantined for an additional 14 days, with their respective district hospitals monitoring the situation. With over 80,239 cases worldwide and 2,700 deaths (as of February 26), the human cost of nCoV has been making headlines since December 2019, and no country wants to take the threat lightly. The virus was first identified as nCoV, then changed to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and finally named Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) by the World Health Organization.
The devastating effects of a virus pandemic are being felt all the more by the
