Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday chaired a review meeting on the preparations to combat the COVID-19 outbreak, with the number of confirmed cases rising to six in the country.
“Apart from the three COVID-19 positive cases from Kerala, who have recovered, three more cases have been confirmed positive for COVID-19 and six have heavy viral load and are awaiting confirmation. All are in isolation and are stable,” said a senior Health Ministry official.
COVID-19 | India suspends visas of travellers coming from Italy, Iran, South Korea, and Japan, along with China
“Also, 24 persons, including 21 Italian tourists and three Indians (bus driver, conductor and tourist guide), who had contact with the Italian national confirmed as COVID-19 positive in Jaipur, have been shifted to the ITBP facility for testing. Depending on the result, action will be taken,” added the official.
“On Tuesday, an Italian tourist in Jaipur tested positive, taking the total number of confirmed cases in India to six so far,” a Ministry release said. Delhi and Telangana had reported one case each on Monday. While the Delhi patient has a travel history to Italy, the patient from Telangana had travelled to Dubai, the release added.
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Contact tracing of the people who may have interacted with the six confirmed cases is being carried out through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) network, the Ministry added .
The Health Ministry has suspended all regular visas/e-visas granted on or before March 3 to nationals of Italy, Iran, South Korea, Japan, who have not yet entered India, in view of the emerging global scenarios regarding COVID-19. Visa on arrival (VoA) issued on or before March 3 to Japanese and South Korean nationals, who have not yet entered India, have also been suspended.
(With PTI inputs)
