Iranian women wear protective masks to prevent contracting coronavirus, as they walk in the street in Tehran (Photo Credit: Reuters)
New Delhi:
India reported two new cases of coronavirus on Monday. The Ministry of Health on Monday reported one positive case of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) disease in Delhi and Telangana. The person who has tested positive in Delhi has travel history from Italy, while the other person has travel history from Dubai. The new cases have taken total number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases in India to five.
Earlier, three students from Kerala had tested positive for the virus. Three days ago, Kerala's health minister, KK Shailaja had said that the three students who were found positive with coronavirus have been cured.
"We succeeded in the first part, that of containing coronavirus. 3 students who were found to be corona-positive were isolated, now they are stable. They were cured," Shailaja had said.
Both the new COVID-19 patients are stable and being closely monitored, the ministry said in a statement.
Update on #COVID19:
— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) March 2, 2020
Two positive cases of #nCoV19 detected. More details in the Press Release.#coronoavirusoutbreak #CoronaVirusUpdate pic.twitter.com/kf83odGo8f
The number of people infected in Italy with the new coronavirus rose 40 per cent to 1,576 in just 24 hours, Italian authorities announced on Sunday, adding that five more infected people had died. That brings the number of deaths in Italy to 34 since cases of the virus exploded in the country on February 21. The news came as a new US government advisory urged Americans not to travel to the two Italian regions hardest hit by the virus.
The coronavirus has infected nearly 89,000 people globally and caused more than 3,000 deaths, including 2,912 in China. The deadly virus, first detected in China in December last year, has spread to more than 70 countries.
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The World Health Organisation said Sunday that the virus appears to particularly hit those over the age of 60 and people already weakened by other illness. The agency noted that most people with the COVID-19 illness only experience mild symptoms, while around 14 per cent suffer severe disease like pneumonia and five per cent become critically ill. It said the mortality rate in the outbreak appears to be between two and five per cent. The seasonal flu has an average mortality rate of about 0.1 per cent but is highly infectious, with up to 400,000 people worldwide dying from it each year. Other strains of coronavirus, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), have established mortality rates of 9.5 per cent and 34.5 per cent, respectively.
(With Agency Inputs)
