HYDERABAD: Telangana Health Minister C Laxma Reddy said on May 22 the health department is on alert against the Nipah virus. Talks have been held with the National Institute of Virology at Pune on the tests to determine Nipah, he said. The state government has also spoken to the National Centre for Disease Control(NCDC) in Delhi and Manipal Centre for Virology and Research (MCVR), he said. The government is setting up special wards with five to eight beds in the state-run Osmania, Gandhi, Niloufer and Fever Hospitals in Hyderabad and MGM hospital in Warangal, he said. The government is also making arrangements to collect blood and others samples to determine the virus, he said; adding that people should approach the nearest governmnent doctors on noticing symptoms of the virus, and that they should not panic.