Corona tally 60
With 10 new coronavirus cases — eight in Kerala and one each in Delhi and Rajasthan — the total number of confirmed cases in India rose to 60, including 16 Italian tourists, the Government on Wednesday suspended all visas, except a few categories such as diplomatic and employment, till April 15.
The decision was taken at a meeting of a group of ministers held here under the chairmanship of Health Minister Harsh Vardhan. “All existing visas, except diplomatic, official, UN/International organisations, employment and project visas, stand suspended till 15th April 2020. This will come into effect from 1200 GMT on 13th March 2020 at the port of departure,” the statement said.
The Government also geared up its health system and stepped up tougher border measures since most of the patients have a travel history to affected countries.
The Union Health Ministry asked overseas firms to initiate ‘work from home facilities’ to its employees coming from a few virus-hit countries for 14 days.
On the international front, India has evacuated 948 passengers from coronavirus-affected countries. Of these, 900 are Indian citizens and 48 are foreigners. External Affairs Minister Jaishankar told Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that the 58 Indian pilgrims who returned from Iran have tested negative and as many as 529 samples have been collected in the second batch and whosoever will test negative will be brought back in the next flight.
The Government will hopefully send on Thursday a medical team to Italy for carrying out testing facilities for Indians stranded there, he said.
Also, a total of 83 individuals, who arrived from Italy on Air India flight on Wednesday, have been quarantined at Army facility at Manesar, Haryana. Of them, 74 are Indian, six are Italian and rest three people are from the United States.
The officials also said a team of doctors will be sent to Italy on Thursday to collect and bring swab samples of Indian students stranded there so that they can be tested before being brought back to the country.
The Ministry further said the Government is undertaking measures to ensure safety and security of its citizens in Iran after it became clear that the country was facing a COVID-19 outbreak.
Indian nationals in Iran include pilgrims, students and fishermen, the Ministry said.
On March 7, 108 samples were received from Iran. These samples are being tested at the laboratory of AIIMS. Also, six scientists from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have been stationed in Iran and they so far have collected swab samples of over 400 Indians stranded there.
Equipments and reagents have also been dispatched to enable them to setup a lab. “The first batch of 58 evacuees from Iran has arrived on March 10 with 25 men, 31 women and 2 children on board. All evacuees are asymptomatic at present,” the Ministry said.
Giving State-wise breakup, the Union Health Ministry said five positive cases have been reported in Delhi while nine people were diagnosed with the infection in Uttar Pradesh till Wednesday evening.
Karnataka and Maharashtra have reported four and two confirmed cases of COVID-19 respectively. Ladakh has recorded two positive cases. Rajasthan, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab have reported one case each, the Ministry said while Kerala has 17 cases, including the three patients who were discharged last month following recovery.
According to reports, two employees from tech companies Mindtree and Dell have tested positive for the deadly coronavirus here, having travel history to abroad. Besides, in what could be the first death due to coronavirus in India, a patient suspected of being infected with COVID-19 virus, has died in Hyderabad. However, no official confirmation has been received from the Telangana Government so far.
Amid rising cases of the COVID-19 pandemic globally, India on Tuesday barred entry of the nationals of three more countries -- France, Germany and Spain -- suspending the regular as well as e-visas granted to them till date.
“All regular (sticker) visas/e-visas granted to nationals of France, Germany and Spain and issued on or before March 11 and who have not yet entered India stand suspended with immediate effect,” said a Bureau of Immigration notification issued late Tuesday night.
Regular visas, including e-visas, granted to all foreign nationals who have travel history to these countries on or after February 1 and who have not yet entered India also stand suspended, it said.
Issuing a travel advisory, the Health Ministry also called for passengers with travel history to China, Hong Kong, Republic of Korea, Japan, Italy, Thailand, Singapore, Iran, Malaysia, France, Spain and Germany to undergo self-imposed quarantine for a period of 14 days from the date of their arrival, and their employers to facilitate work-from-home for such employees during this period.
The Union Health Ministry has strongly urged people to refrain from travelling to China, Italy, Iran, Republic of Korea, Japan, France, Spain and Germany and advised them to avoid non-essential travel abroad in view of the coronavirus outbreak. The Ministry further said that a total number of 10,57,506 passengers have been screened so far at the airport.
The Tripura Government has decided to temporarily shut two border ‘haat’ (markets) along the India-Bangladesh border as a precautionary measure to check the spread of coronavirus while India has already suspended visas granted to the nationals of Italy, Iran, South Korea, Japan and China
The Sports Authority of India (SAI) has locked down its southern centre as a precaution measure while places of public gatherings like cinema halls have been closed in Jammu and Kerala has also gone for a lockdown.
Meanwhile, the Group of Ministers (GoM) which undertook elaborate discussions on the various precautionary measures expressed satisfaction with actions taken, preparedness and efforts put together by various stakeholders.