The Indian Railways on Saturday appealed to travellers to postpone all journeys after 12 passengers, who travelled in trains this month, were found to be infected with COVID-19 coronavirus.

“Railways has found some cases of Coronavirus infected passengers in trains which makes train travel risky. Avoid train travel as you may also get infected if your co-passenger has Coronavirus. Postpone all journeys and keep yourself and your loved ones safe,” the railways tweeted.

Railways has found some cases of Coronavirus infected passengers in trains which makes train travel risky.

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Avoid train travel as you may also get infected if your co-passenger has Coronavirus.

Postpone all journeys and keep yourself and your loved ones safe. #NoRailTravel

— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) March 21, 2020

As many as 12 people who have been infected with the novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 travelled in trains between March 13 and 16.

The advisory comes on a day when the cases of Coronavirus rose to 271 in India.

Maharashtra has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases at 63.

The East Central Railway has requested all possible help from the Bihar government for making special arrangements to screen passengers coming to Bihar by trains from Mumbai-Pune region.

Meanwhile, in a relief to passengers, the Indian Railways has asked the passengers not to come immediately to the reservation counters to cancel their tickets and relaxed the refund period of cancelled tickets up to 45 days.

In a statement the railway ministry said that all rules for e-ticket remain the same as passenger does not need to come to station for refund of ticket.

“This relaxation is for journey period from March 21 to April 15,” it said.

The railways said that in case the train is cancelled by Indian Railways for journey period March 21 March to April 15, then refund across counter can be taken on submission of ticket up to 45 days from date of journey. Earlier, to cancel a ticket booked from the reservation ticket, the passenger needs to submit the ticket from three hours to 72 hours.

The railways also said that the passengers who want to cancel ticket through 139 can get refund across the counter within 30 days from the date of journey instead of extant rule of up to scheduled departure of the train.

Earlier, the national transporter cancelled over 245 pairs of trains in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The railways as a precautionary step also increased the prices of the platform tickets at over 500 railway stations from Rs 10 to Rs 50 to control the huge rush at the stations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again urged people on Saturday to avoid leaving home and follow instructions to “protect themselves as well as their family and friends”.