Coronavirus LIVE Updates: 3 More COVID-19 Cases Reported In India, PM Modi Reviews Meet

A man from Delhi with a travel history to Thailand and Malaysia has tested positive for COVID19, taking the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in India to 31, health ministry officials said on Friday. The latest case is the third in Delhi-NCR. The 30 other positive cases include a 45-year-old man from Delhi's Mayur Vihar and six of his relatives from Agra whom he had recently visited. Another is a Paytm employee who works in Gurgaon and lives in west Delhi. They are all being treated at the Safdarjung hospital.

A middle-aged man from Ghaziabad, who tested positive for the virus, is being treated at the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital in the national capital. A 24-year-old man from Hyderabad, who has also tested positive for coronavirus, has been isolated.

Besides, 16 members of a tourist group from Italy and their Indian guide have been found infected by the virus. While one Italian man and his wife are being treated at Jaipur's SMS hospital, 14 members of the group and their Indian guide, who were quarantined at the ITBP camp in Chhawla, have been admitted to the Medanta hospital in Gurgaon.

The total figure of positive cases includes the first three reported from Kerala last month. All the three persons have been discharged following recovery. According to a latest advisory, all international passengers irrespective of their nationality are mandated to undergo a universal medical screening. Adequate screening measures have been put in place and nine more airports have been added to the existing 21, bringing the total number to 30 airports where screening of passengers is being carried out.

Meanwhile, in a suspected coronavirus case, a man from Raipur, who returned to India from Kenya through Dubai, has been put under home quarantine.

The central government has asked states to form rapid response teams at district, block and village levels to combat the spread of the virus. Meanwhile, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced that all primary schools in the national capital will remain closed till March 31. The primary classes of Kendriya Vidyalayas in Delhi will also remain closed till March 31.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) appealed governments to pull out 'all the stops' in the fight against the COVID-19 as the global march of the novel coronavirus outbreak continued. According to various sources, the number of novel coronavirus cases in the world rose to 97,510, including 3,345 deaths across 85 countries and territories so far. More than 2,699 new contaminations and 100 new deaths were identified on Thursday.

"This is not a drill. This is not the time for giving up. This is not a time for excuses. This is a time for pulling out all the stops," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva. "Countries have been planning for scenarios like this for decades. Now is the time to act on those plans."

The novel coronavirus outbreak, that emerged at the end of December in Wuhan, has so far infected 80,409 people in China with 3,012 fatalities, according to date collected by the news agency AFP. Outside China, a total of 17,101 cases have been recorded around the world since the epidemic began, including 333 deaths said the the AFP report. According to AFP, this assessment was carried out using data collected from the competent national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO).

(With Agency Inputs)