23 new cases reported in 24 hrs; Maha tops race; curbs placed all over India
India saw the biggest single day spike in the number of novel coronavirus cases when 23 persons reported positive during the last 24 hours on Sunday. The number swelled to 107 from 84 with Maharashtra reporting the highest number of positive cases followed by Kerala. Meanwhile over 450 stranded Indians were flown back from Italy and Iran and quarantined.
A Health Ministry official said over 4,000 people who had come in contact with 93 positive cases have been identified through contact and were being tracked while 42,000 people across the country are under community surveillance.
More States on Sunday closed schools, colleges cinema halls, and also imposed Section 144 of the CrPC to prevent gathering of more than four persons in order to check the spread of the disease.
While the number of positive cases in Maharashtra shot up to 33, the Health Ministry has clarified that the 71-year-old man from Buldhana, who died during treatment on Saturday in a hospital, had tested negative for coronavirus infection. He had returned from Saudi Arabia recently and had diabetes and high blood pressure.
The Mumbai Police on Sunday clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC to stop tour operators from conducting any kind of group tours to foreign or domestic destinations till March 31.
Maharashtra has already invoked the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 that gives wide-ranging powers to officials to enforce measures, including that of lockdown and quarantine, required to tackle an outbreak. Shopping malls, schools and colleges have been closed in the State till March 31.
The Government has also placed curbs on the movement of all types of passengers to Pakistan through international border points.
Earlier, the Government had announced suspension of all types of passenger movement from 00:00 hours on March 15 through the Indo-Bangla, Indo-Nepal, Indo-Bhutan and Indo-Myanmar borders barring a few specified border checkposts.
The total number of cases in the country includes the two persons who died in Delhi and Karnataka and 17 foreigners.
Delhi has so far reported seven positive cases, Kerala 22 and Uttar Pradesh 11. Karnataka has six coronavirus patients while Ladakh three and Jammu & Kashmir two. Telangana reported three cases. Rajasthan reported two cases. Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab have reported one case each.
In Kerala, 20 Dubai-bound passengers were detained at the Kochi airport after a UK national, who was under surveillance sneaked out and joined the group, tested positive for novel coronavirus, official sources said.
Meanwhile, the over 280 passengers of the Dubai-bound Emirates flight, which the group had taken, were offloaded at the airport. The flight left for Dubai in the afternoon after the 20 passengers were detained.
The UK national has been taken to an isolation facility at a nearby Government hospital, a Cochin International Airport Limited spokesman said. Kerala has launched an intensified medical check-up in inter-State border areas for people entering the State by rail and road. As many as 302 people are in isolation wards of various hospitals across the State.
Elections to rural and urban local bodies in Andhra Pradesh have been put off for six weeks by the State Election Commission in view of spread of coronavirus, according to State Election Commissioner N Ramesh Kumar. The elections were originally scheduled for March 21.
More States ordered closure of schools and public places like cinema halls and malls where people gather in large numbers. The Tamil Nadu government directed closure of all kindergarten and primary schools till March 31.
Chief Minister K Palaniswami also issued orders for closure of cinema halls and malls till the month end in 16 districts bordering Kerala and Karnataka, where the number of COVID-19 cases is on the rise, an official release said.
The Assam Government too ordered shutting down of educational institutions, gymnasiums, swimming pools and cinema halls with immediate effect till March 29 in the wake of novel coronavirus outbreak.
Uttarakhand government has declared novel coronavirus an epidemic and shut all multiplexes, cinema halls, degree colleges and technical institutes across the state till March 31, official sources said.
However, the Central government has asked people not to panic, saying no community transmission of the virus has been observed and there has only been a few cases of local transmission so far and that it is “not a health emergency” in India at present.
Meanwhile, the Government continued to evacuate Indians stranded in coronavirus-hit Iran and Italy. A total of 218 Indians, mostly students, from Milan landed at around 9.45 AM at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in Delhi and were taken to an ITBP quarantine facility in south-west Delhi’s Chhawla area.
More than 230 Indians brought back from Iran reached New Delhi at about 3:15 AM and were quarantined at the Indian Army Wellness Centre in Jaisalmer, the third batch to be evacuated from that country. They had arrived in Delhi on a Mahan Air flight from Tehran and were ferried by two Air India flights to Jaisalmer, IGI airport officials said.
The first batch of 58 Indian pilgrims were brought back from Iran on Tuesday and the second group of 44 Indian pilgrims had arrived from there on Friday.
Italy is the second most affected country after China with over 1,400 deaths and 21,000 cases of coronavirus. It is followed by Iran where over 700 people have died and nearly 14,000 cases have been detected.
Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said all paramilitary forces, including the CRPF, the ITBP, and the BSF, have been advised to keep ready quarantine camps for COVID-19 suspects as a preparatory measure.
He said all essential facilities like community surveillance, quarantine, isolation wards, adequate personal protective equipment (PPEs), trained manpower, rapid response teams are being strengthened further in all states and union territories.
The minstry also said that it has placed an order for the procurement of an additional over 80,50,000 N95 masks and personal protective equipment for healthcare workers.