India’s COVID-battered Kerala state now on alert for Nipah virus

Southern state on high alert after 12-year-old boy dies of the rare virus, spurring officials to start contact-tracing.

The southern Indian state of Kerala is quickly ramping up efforts to stop a potential outbreak of the deadly Nipah virus, even as the state continues to battle the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country. Kerala is on high alert after a 12-year-old boy died of the rare virus on Sunday, spurring health officials to start contact-tracing and isolating hundreds of people who came into contact with the boy, who died at a hospital in the coastal city of Kozhikode. On Tuesday, the state health minister told reporters that the samples of eight primary contacts have come back negative.