Coronavirus cases in India double from last week to 62: Kerala shuts down

Coronavirus cases in India surged to 62 after eight people in Kerala and five in Pune tested positive on Tuesday (March 10), according to the live data available on Worldometers.

Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope said that a Pune couple who travelled from Dubai tested positive and were quarantined. They infected three others including their daughter and a cab-driver and a co-passenger from Mumbai airport.

In the meanwhile, Kerala which has the maximum number of cases at 14, is on a shutdown mode. “We have decided to close down all educational institutions in the state for the month of March. But all the examinations will be held as normal. There will be no examination for classes 1 to 7, while the others will have examinations as usual,” said Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the media.

Two suspected patients, who returned from Indonesia and Malaysia recently were admitted to the Infectious Diseases Hospital, IANS reportes. Sources said both of them have been kept at an isolation ward and their swab samples have been collected for testing.

Indian Airforce plane on Tuesday brought back 58 Indians stranded in a coronavirus hit Iran. IAF spokesperson Captain Anupam Banerjee said they evacuated 25 men, 31 women and two children.

The official said the citizens will be kept in isolation for the next 14 days in Hindon.

Along with the visa restrictions in place for nationals of Iran, Italy and Japan, the government also mandated travellers who visited Italy and South Korea to submit COVID-19 tested negative certificates from laboratories authorised by the health authorities of their countries.

UK health minister Nadine Dorries became the first MP in the UK to catch coronavirus after the number of infected people surged to 383 in the UK.

The MP is currently self-isolating herself after the results. Matt Hancock, secretary of state for health and social care, tweeted “Really sorry to hear Nadine has tested positive for coronavirus. She has done the right thing by self-isolating at home, and both the NHS and PHE staff have been brilliant. We all wish her well as she recovers.”

Manohar Krishna Prabhu, 80, a British-Indian man became the sixth person in the UK to die out of coronavirus. His son is still being treated at the hospital, Prof. Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England, told TOI.

The number of cases worldwide rose to 119,186 after 4,805 cases were reported yesterday (March 10). Although 66,619 people have recovered from the infection, the death toll around the world stands at 4,298.