'Kerala is safer', says Italian tourist cured of COVID-19

"Kerala is more safe" were the parting words of an Italian tourist who tested positive for COVID-19 and was discharged on Monday from a hospital here after making a full recovery.

Thiruvananthapuram:"Kerala is safer" were the parting words of an Italian tourist who tested positive for COVID-19 and was discharged on Monday from a hospital here after making a full recovery.

Forty-year-old Roberto Tonesso, who had reached Kerala in February and was staying in Varkala, tested positive for COVID on March 13, 2020.

Subsequently, he was isolated and treated at the Medical College Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram. On March 26, he tested negative. However, he was kept under observation for another 22 days at the Thiruvananthapuram General Hospital.

"I am so happy. I thank everybody, all doctors and other staff. Once everything is over, I would like to come back.

Kerala is like my home. It's safer here. Now I have to go back to my country, but I will come back," Tonizzo told media.

The state government arranged a vehicle for him to go to Bengaluru from where he will travel to Italy with other Italian nationals later.

Kerala Minister for Tourism Kadakampally Surendran and Thiruvananthapuram District Collector K Gopalakrishnan were present to send him off from Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.

Earlier, on April 9, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had said that seven nationals from the United Kingdom and an Italian national had recovered and cured of COVID-19.

The seven people, admitted in the Ernakulam medical college, were part of the group which had on March 15 tried to leave the country without permission while being under observation at Munnar, a hill station in the state.

Inputs from PTI