Six fresh cases of the novel coronavirus were confirmed on Monday, taking the total number of patients in India to 45, ANI reported. The Union Health Ministry said one new case each has been reported from Punjab, Karnataka, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. However, there have been no deaths in the country yet.
A resident of Hoshiarpur in Punjab who recently travelled to Italy tested positive, India Today reported. “He had landed at Amritsar International Airport via Delhi on March 4 along with his two other family members,” Punjab Principal Secretary (Health) Anurag Aggarwal said. He is admitted to a government hospital in Amritsar.
One person in Bengaluru tested positive for the coronavirus. The patient recently returned from the United States, Karnataka Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar said, according to ANI.
In Kerala, the latest person to test positive for the virus is a three-year-old child who returned from Italy, according to the Hindustan Times. A man from Jammu and Kashmir, who travelled to Iran, has also tested positive for coronavirus.
The person infected in Delhi had travelled to Italy, PTI reported quoting health officials. The patient in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, had come into contact with the six people from Agra who had tested positive for coronavirus earlier.
The child who got infected in Kerala arrived in Kochi on March 7 from Italy with her parents. The family underwent thermal screening at the Kochi airport, after which they were put in a hospital, where the child eventually tested positive for the infection, NDTV reported. “There is no need to panic,” Ernakulam District Collector S Suhas told The Hindustan Times. “The child’s condition is stable. The situation is well under control.”
Twelve people, including the child’s parents, are under observation at an isolation ward of a medical college in Ernakulam district. The reports of their medical tests are expected to be out by Monday evening, an unidentified health official told the newspaper.
The girl’s family had taken an Emirates flight from Italy via Dubai. Authorities have directed all passengers onboard the flight to report to their nearest health centres for screening. The Kochi airport has handed over the list of passengers to health officials. The District Collector has instructed all passengers to report immediately to a round-the-clock control room set up in Kochi.
Unidentified district officials, however, told The Hindustan Times that not many cases of the coronavirus are expected in Kochi because passengers were quarantined directly from the airport.
In Pathanamthitta, the district collector on Monday declared three-day holiday for all educational institutions in the district, ANI reported. However, Class 10 board exams will be held as per schedule.
Five people in Pathanamthitta district had tested positive on Sunday. The district is reportedly also facing an acute shortage of masks and sanitizers. Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja on Sunday said out of the five people who were infected, three people recently returned from Italy, Europe’s worst-hit country, and two others were infected in Pathanamthitta district.
A man from Jammu and Kashmir who travelled to Iran tested positive for coronavirus on Monday. At least 400 people are under surveillance in Satwari and Sarwal areas of Jammu, said Rohit Kansal, the principal secretary (planning). “Anganwadi centers in these areas have been closed till March 31,” he added.
Two persons from Ladakh with travel history to Iran, and one from Tamil Nadu who visited Oman had tested positive last week. A 76-year-old man died in Ladakh after showing symptoms associated with the coronavirus outbreak, NDTV reported. The former policeman had recently been to Iran.
Of the remaining 31 positive cases of the virus in India – 17 people, including 14 Italians, tested positive in Delhi, two Italian tourists in Jaipur, six Indians in Agra, and one each in Hyderabad, Ghaziabad and Gurugram. This also includes three patients who had recovered in Kerala in January.
In Assam, state Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said at least 400 people were quarantined on Monday after they came in contact with an American tourist who tested positive for the new coronavirus.
On Monday, Qatar banned the entry of people from India, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria and Thailand. The temporary ban is a preventive measure to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19.
As of Sunday, the number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases worldwide was 1,05,523, and 3,584 people had died.
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