New Delhi: Health Minister Sushma Swaraj on April 17 said the first confirmed case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in India was no longer "infected", but government had sent a National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) team to Goa to take measures like to quarantine those who came in contact with him.

Though the samples of the marine engineer from Goa have tested positive fort the virus, the patient is no longer infected, Swaraj told reporters.

"He had gone home after treatment. If the sample was not tested, he would not have known that he had SARS," Swaraj said adding this showed testing reagents prepared by Indian scientists after getting primers from abroad can effectively test the virus.

"No infection is left in him and the 10-day incubation period is over as far as the patient is concerned. But, he had come in contact with some people and for precautionary purposes, the patients and his family are in isolation."

Keeping this in mind, government had also sent an NICD team to Goa so that people who had come in contact with the marine engineer are at least quarantined, Swaraj said.

PTI