A testing centre for the detection of novel coronavirus has been established at the King Institute of Preventive Medicine in Guindy as over 800 people are under observation in hospitals and homes in Tamil Nadu.

Five blood samples have reportedly been received from health authorities at the institute, which was inaugrated by state Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar. Adding that the results will be available 48 hours after the receipt of samples, he said, "All of them (whose blood specimen have been collected) are clinically normal (does not exhibit symptom presently)." Thermal screening was performed on 5543 passengers who had returned from China at the Chennai, Madurai, Trichy, and Coimbatore airports and there have been no reports of a positive case.

Coronavirus, that reportedly originated from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, affects the respiratory tract of the infected person. Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). A novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).