Number of coronavirus cases rises to 44, first positive infection from Punjab

New Delhi, March 9

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.

A Hoshiarpur resident, who returned from Italy last week, has been tested positive for coronavirus afflictions, becoming the first such case in Punjab, an official said.

Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu also reported one case each, officials said.

One case was reported positive for coronavirus by state officials in Karnataka, but there was no immediate confirmation from the Union Health Ministry.

The ministry in a statement also clarified that the patient from Murshidabad, West Bengal, who died on Sunday had tested negative for the infection and “hence so far no death has been reported due to the disease in the country”.

A case each has been reported from Kerala, Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu

As the COVID-19 scare spread—with 110,041 people from more than 90 countries infected and 3,825 people killed—India said it will send a military transport aircraft to Iran on Monday night to bring back Indians stranded in the nation, official sources said.

About 2,000 Indians are living in Iran, where 7,000 people have tested positive for the contagious disease with flu-like symptoms and 237 people killed.

Giving details of the new cases reported in India, officials said the patient in Jammu, the first case in Jammu and Kashmir, is learnt to have a travel history to Iran while the patient from Uttar Pradesh had come in contact with the six people from Agra who had tested positive.

The Delhi patient has no travel history and had come in contact with a positive patient from the city, Delhi Health Department officials added. Earlier, some officials said the patient had travelled to Italy.

With Delhi recording its fourth coronavirus case, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan chaired a meeting with Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and senior officials.

“We are sending detailed guidelines to all states on ways to contain the coronavirus. We have asked states to strengthen laboratories and manpower to effectively deal with the coronavirus and form early rapid action teams,” Vardhan told reporters.

A Punjab official said in Chandigarh on Monday that a Hoshiarpur resident, who returned from Italy last week, was tested positive for coronavirus, the first such case in the state.

In Karnataka, a software engineer who returned from the US recently has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, becoming the first COVID-19 patient in Karnataka, state Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar said on Monday.

Asserting that the government is prepared to deal with the outbreak, Vardhan stressed on the need for coordinated action between departments and agencies for activities such as contact tracing, community surveillance, hospital management and ensuring adequate personal protection equipment and masks.

Underlining the Centre’s preparedness to deal with COVID-19, Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers D V Sadananda Gowda said in Bengaluru that there was sufficient stock of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API), need to make medicines, for the next three months.

Three-year-old among infected

In the Kerala town of Kochi, officials said the three-year-old child who tested positive for coronavirus and its parents landed at the Cochin International Airport Limited at 6 am on March 7 from Italy.

They underwent thermal screening and the child was detected with symptoms of the disease. The family was immediately referred to the isolation ward of the Kalamassery Medical College Hospital, they said.

Samples of the parents have also been sent for lab tests, the officials added.

The five cases from Kerala reported on Sunday are three members of a family with a travel history to Italy and two of their relatives who came in contact with them.

Up north, in Jammu, a 63-year-old woman who declared positive was among the two patients declared “high viral load cases” by the administration on the weekend.

They are undergoing treatment at the isolation ward of the Government Medical College (GMC) hospital and are in a stable condition, officials in Jammu said.

“The test report of the woman patient is positive, while the report of the other patient is still awaited,” a Health Department official said.

The two with a travel history to Italy, South Korea and Iran had fled the hospital’s isolation ward on Wednesday shortly after being admitted there but were brought back within hours of the incident, the official said.

Jammu and Kashmir administration spokesperson Rohit Kansal said they are watching the situation and have put 400 people under surveillance in Satawari and Sarwal areas of Jammu.

The number of COVID-19 cases in India, which was just six till last Tuesday, includes 16 Italians as well as three Kerala patients who were discharged last month following their recovery.

Virus scare casts shadow over Holi

The coronavirus scare cast a shadow over Holi on Tuesday in large parts of north India with many people cancelling their celebrations.

In Kerala, notwithstanding the scare and strict government guidelines, lakhs of women took part in the famous “Attukal Pongala” festival, an all-women ritual at the Attukal Bhahavathy Temple here.

Unlike previous years, women devotees, including children and elders, could be seen wearing face masks while preparing the offering, as a precautionary measure in the wake of the virus outbreak. — PTI