Health authorities in Kerala on Friday shifted a female student, who has been tested positive for the novel coronavirus, from the the general hospital to the Government Medical College in Thrissur, official sources said.

The medical college student from Wuhan University was shifted to an isolation ward set up in the Medical College Hospital in the early hours on Friday, they said.

The patient had been kept in an isolation ward of the general hospital since she approached the doctors with symptoms of the coronavirus.

The decision to shift her to the Medical College Hospital was taken after state health minister K. K. Shailaja held a high-level meeting on Thursday midnight to take stock of the situation after the positive case of novel coronavirus was detected in the state.

The medical college has been upgraded with a special isolation ward with facilities to treat at least 24 patients at a time.

At least 1,053 people are under observation in the state as the Left Democratic Front government scrambled to tackle the emergency.

The Union health ministry had reported to the state government on Thursday that the patient has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.