Coronavirus outbreak | 34 cases in India as 3 more test positive; PM Modi holds review meet

The COVID-19 coronavirus has now killed more than 3,450 people and infected more than 1,00,000 across 92 nations, including 34 people in India since the outbreak first emerged in China in December. China on Saturday reported 28 new deaths from the coronavirus outbreak, bringing the nationwide toll to 3,070.

Outside of China, Italy has registered the highest number of fatalities, with Friday marking it’s largest daily toll of 49 virus deaths, bringing the total number to 197.

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South Korea has the biggest number of cases outside China, with over 6,000 infections and 42 deaths, prompting the country to extend school breaks by three weeks.

Meanwhile, 21 people on board a cruise ship stranded off the coast of San Francisco have tested positive for the new Coronavirus, Vice President Mike Pence said. “Among those positive for coronavirus were 19 crew members and two passengers,” said Pence, who has been tasked by President Donald Trump to coordinate the US government’s response to the outbreak.

As the virus continues its global march, the director-general of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told the global community on March 5 that the time had come to “pull out all the stops” to tackle the outbreak.

In India, among the 31 persons are 16 Italian tourists, of which 14 have been shifted from the ITBP facility in Delhi’s Chawla area to Medanta hospital in Gurgaon and an elderly couple are kept in isolation in a Jaipur hospital.

The latest case was reported from Delhi on Friday, where the patient has a travel history to Thailand and Malaysia.

Amid concerns over the outbreak, all primary schools in Delhi will remain closed till March 31 to prevent the possibility of spread of Coronavirus.

India will now screen all international travellers entering the country through airports and ports.

Meanwhile, India has sent a six-member team of scientists from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to Iran to set up a makeshift laboratory so that people can be tested before flying back.

Also, Iranian flight, Mahan Air, is expected to bring swab samples of 300 Indians stranded in the Coronavirus-hit country Saturday afternoon.

Mahan Air would operate the flight to Delhi and would carry Iranians back in the return flight.

There are about 2,000 Indians, mostly from Kargil area of Kashmir, stranded there. They had gone to visit a religious shrine in Iran but got stuck as regular commercial flights were suspended between the two countries following the spread of the virus. Iran reported 17 new deaths on Friday taking the toll in the country to 124.

The Indian government has been working on logistics with Iranian authorities for the return of the stranded citizens.

Meanwhile, almost 2,000 Iranians are currently in India who would be flown back to their country by the ferry flights.