Virus cases in India rise to 28, including 16 Italians

Sixteen Italians in India have tested positive for coronavirus, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said yesterday, as the total number of known cases in the country rose sharply to 28.
On Monday, the world’s second-most populous country had only six reported cases of coronavirus, but it is one of the places US intelligence agencies are most closely monitoring due to fears over how it would cope with a widespread outbreak.
Authorities are increasing screenings at airports and border crossings, and urging citizens to avoid large crowds.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he would not attend celebrations for the Holi festival, scheduled to be held across the country next week.
“Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the (virus) spread,” Modi said in a tweet on yesterday.
“Hence, this year I have decided not to participate.”
An Italian visiting Rajasthan was among those who had tested positive earlier.
And yesterday, Vardhan said 15 of 21 tourists from Italy – Europe’s worst-affected country – who had been taken to a quarantine facility on the outskirts of New Delhi had tested positive for the virus. Their Indian driver was also placed in quarantine.
Indian stock markets slid nearly 2% after the government disclosed the rise in cases, before paring losses late in the day.
Vardhan said authorities were taking extra precautions against the spread of the virus after the sharp rise in cases.
“We will now screen all international passengers. We will not limit our screenings to 12 countries as we did earlier,” Vardhan told a news conference.
Vardhan also said India was in the process of setting up a laboratory in Iran to do coronavirus tests on Indian nationals before flying them home.
Scientists, technicians and laboratory equipment were being flown to Iran, Vardhan said.
Iran is among the countries worst affected by the coronavirus.
Ministry of External Affairs has been contacted by scores of Indians, including students and pilgrims, wanting to return home. India has cancelled all flights from Iran since Thursday.
Parents of Kashmiri students stuck in Iran yesterday staged a protest in Srinagar to urge the government to evacuate their children.
“We want the government to quickly evacuate Kashmiri students enrolled in different educational institutions in Shiraz, Isfhan and Tehran,” said Noor Mohamed, whose son is studying medicine in Iran.
He said the government should come up with an evacuation plan on similar lines as was done for those stranded in China.
The Internet blockade in Kashmir has added to the woes of the parents who are not able to get in touch with their children in Iran.
The Indian navy said it was postponing a large-scale multinational exercise due to the spread of the deadly virus.
The MILAN 2020 exercise “has been postponed, taking into consideration the safety of all participants and travel restrictions imposed by the spread of Covid-19,” the navy said in a statement.
Warships and navy personnel from more than 40 countries had been invited to participate in the exercise, media reported.
The exercise was scheduled for March 18-29 to be held along the east coast off Visakhapatnam.
The Indian navy “looks forward toward scheduling MILAN at a later convenient date,” the statement read. The Economic Times newspaper reported that the event was set to be India’s largest-ever war games.
Meanwhile, at least 23 colleagues of a woman software engineer, suspected to be Covid-19 positive, were advised home isolation for two weeks, health officials said.
The woman’s husband working for another company will also remain in self-isolation. However, officials said other employees in the two companies or other firms need not panic.
The woman techie, who recently returned from Italy, is one of the two persons suspected to be Covid-19 positive.
In Punjab, a 32-year-old suspected coronavirus patient who returned from Dubai and was advised quarantine yesterday refused to get himself admitted to a local hospital and fled home.
“The patient with symptoms of respiratory discomfort was advised hospitalisation. He initially refused to get himself admitted to the isolation ward owing to scare and disappeared. Now, a medical team has been sent to bring him back to the hospital,” a health official said.
The patient had returned from Dubai on Tuesday.