Two more contacts of the 43-year-old Nipah patient were discharged from the Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, on Tuesday (June 16).

A release from the office of Health Minister K. Muraleedharan said that they had earlier tested negative for the virus. Meanwhile, one more person was admitted to the hospital with symptoms. Nine people had been admitted to the hospital so far, and four of them were discharged.

The lab results of 13 people on the contact list of the infected person and 24 other symptomatic people have turned negative for the virus. There are 104 people on the contact list now. The patient remains on ventilator support.

At the same time, officials from the Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, Kannur, and the Animal Disease Control Project, Kozhikode, collected body fluid samples of bats from within a five-km area of the epicentre of the infection in Ramanattukara Municipality. Forest department officials were with them. Nasal swabs and blood samples of domestic animals such as dogs and cats from the area too were collected. Excretion of bats from their roosting sites were taken for further examination. They would be sent to the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, the release added.