Jamnagar, August 5: A man suspected to have contracted monkeypox has tested negative for the viral infection in Gujarat's Jamnagar district, an official said on Friday. The 29-year-old man was admitted to the isolation ward of GG Hospital in Jamnagar city on Thursday after he showed monkeypox symptoms. But the test reports of his swab sample, sent to a laboratory in Ahmedabad, came out negative, the official said.

"As per the lab report, the man is not infected with monkeypox as suspected earlier," said Dr Saugata Chatterjee of the government-run G G Hospital. Gujarat has so far not reported a single case of monkeypox. A total of nine cases including one death have been reported in India. Explainer: How Worried Should We Be About the Monkeypox Health Emergency?.

The patient admitted to the Jamnagar hospital had no recent travel history but showed some symptoms of the disease such as high fever, officials had said earlier.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)