The toll reached 4,011 in the coronavirus outbreak that has spread to over 100 countries with more than 110,000 cases of infection.
New Delhi| In India, which reported its 46th coronavirus case today, the government is banking on measures such as screening at airports, cleaning of public transport and setting up of isolation wards to contain the outbreak.
The novel coronavirus has led to crashing economies and markets, travel restrictions and put pressure on health infrastructure.
Today, India also closed its border with Myanmar to avoid the spread of infections.
In Kerala, four positive cases have been reported in Kottayam and two in Pathanamthitta. In total, 12 cases have been reported in the state so far. Parents of Italy returned person who are admitted at Kottayam medical college who are 90 and 85 years old have been tested positive. The two people who had gone to pick the people from the airport who had come from Italy have also been tested positive. In Karnataka, three new cases have been reported.
A three-year-old child in Kerala who returned from Italy with its parents over the weekend is among India’s five new coronavirus patients, taking the total number of cases in the country to 44, Health Ministry officials said on Monday.
Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa held an emergency meeting with state health minister B Sriramulu and medical education minister Sudhakar after the state reported four positive cases over the last two days.
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The Pune couple, who were tested positive for coronavirus yesterday, had travelled to Dubai in the last week of February with a group of 40 tourists. They returned on March 1. The administration has got the contact details of all those present in the tour and will screen all of them, Deepak Mhaisekar, Pune Division Commissioner said. The administration has also collected swabs of three family members of the couple and have sent for testing. Also, the driver of the Ola cab who had ferried the couple to Pune from Mumbai Airport has been admitted to Naidu Hospital for testing.
Delhi, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu reported one case each, officials said.
The World Health Organisation warned yesterday there was a “very real” threat that the global outbreak of the new deadly coronavirus will become a pandemic, but stressed the virus could still be controlled.
“The threat of a pandemic has become very real,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters while stressing that “it would be the first pandemic in history that can be controlled… we are not at the mercy of the virus”.
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