Coronavirus updates March 14: Positive cases rise to 84 as Centre declares COVID-19 a ‘notified disaster’

“The patient had returned from Saudi Arabia three days ago and had got himself admitted in a private hospital after developing high fever. After checking him up, the private hospital informed the civil surgeon, who immediately shifted him to the isolation ward of Civil Hospital. But he succumbed some time back,” Amravti Divisional Commissioner Piyush Singh told the Indian Express, adding that the patient also had underlined health conditions including a history of severe diabetes , hyper tension and kidney ailments.

14 people who came in contact with the deceased have been quarantined and sent to an isolation ward, he said.

India also recorded the second death due to the novel coronavirus pandemic after a 68-year-old woman from West Delhi died at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital Friday. This comes a day after a 76-year-old man, who died on his way from Hyderabad to his hometown Kalaburagi (Karnataka) Tuesday, was confirmed to have tested positive.

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With the rising number of COVID-19 cases, the Department of Health Research and the Indian Council of Medical Research (DHR-ICMR) will now take over a thousand samples of influenza- or pneumonia-like illnesses from patients without any travel history or contact with infected persons to rule out community transmission of coronavirus.

A network of 65 laboratories will now test 20 samples each week — 10 of influenza-like illnesses and 10 of severe acute respiratory infection — for Covid-19. Senior ICMR scientist Nivedita Gupta on Friday said the exercise was being done to document if community transmission was happening in any region of the country.

ICMR’s director-general Dr Balram Bhargava said India has not reached the stage of community transmission yet, but countries like Italy, China, the US, and UK have entered it. “That’s why we feel that we will go through that stage too, but if we can prevent it, that window of opportunity is now… If we manage for 30 days, and community transmission does not happen for another 30 days we may be at a good wicket (a better position),” he said.

In a first, devotees to get time-slots for darshan at Tirumala

For the first time in over 1,700 years of its existence, the famous temple of Lord Venkateshwara at Tirumala has put curbs on visits by pilgrims due to COVID-19. Instead of allowing thousands of pilgrims to wait in huge compartments for ‘darshan’ at the temple, the Tirumala Tirupati Devesthanams (TTD) will give out tokens with time slots from March 17. The slotting will ensure not more than 4,000 pilgrims are present inside the temple complex at any given time

India 5th country in world to isolates virus 

India has also become the fifth country to isolate the virus after China, Japan, the US and Thailand, ICMR’s director general Dr Balram Bhargava said, adding that the strain of virus isolated is “99.99 per cent similar” to that in Wuhan.

Women wear masks and walk inside Government Medical College hospital in Jammu.  (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

With the virus now isolated, authorities can begin working on a vaccine for it. Bhargava said, “We have the virus available with us, and that can help us develop more rapid diagnostic kits and could pave the way for vaccine development in future, which is still far away and every country is working towards that.”

US Embassy in India urges Indian students’ to avoid non-essential travel 

Internationally, the Indian Embassy in the US on Saturday asked the large Indian students’ community to avoid all non-essential domestic and international travel. This comes after President Donald Trump declared a national emergency to combat the novel coronavirus. There are over 200,000 Indian students studying in various educational institutions and universities in the US.

Air India will also send a flight to Milan (Italy) today to bring back stranded Indians. It will land on Sunday morning at Delhi airport. “The flight would take off in afternoon and would be landing on Sunday morning at Delhi Airport,” informed Rubina Ali, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation.

All 112 evacuees including 36 foreign nationals at ITBP facility after they have been tested negative for coronavirus. EXPRESS PHOTO BY PRAVEEN KHANNA

In light of the increasing coronavirus cases in the world, the US Embassy and Consulates in India Saturday cancelled the immigrant and non-immigrant visa appointments from March 16 onward. A statement issued by the US Embassy here said, “US Mission India posts, in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic, are cancelling immigrant and nonimmigrant visa appointments from March 16, 2020, onward.”

In a statement, the Embassy said that once Mission India resumes on a regular basis, travelers can make appointments and can reschedule their travel.

Pakistan responds to PM Modi’s invite to SAARC nations to discuss coronavirus  

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed that leaders from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries should chalk out a plan to fight the coronavirus pandemic, starting with a discussion via “video-conferencing”, Pakistan Saturday said it will participate in the video conferencing.

The neighbouring country responded positively to PM Modi’s suggestion, acknowledging that coordinated efforts were needed to minimise the threat spread by the virus.
Among SAARC nations, India has so far recorded 83 positive cases followed by Pakistan (20), Maldives (8), Afghanistan (7), Bangladesh (3), Sri Lanka (2), and Nepal and Bhutan (1 each).

Infosys vacates office building in Bengaluru over coronavirus scare 

The Infosys on Saturday decided to vacate one of its satellite buildings in Bengaluru after one of its employees came in contact with a suspected COVID-19 case. “Infosys has taken a decision to evacuate one of our satellite buildings as a precautionary measure, as one of our employees had been in contact with an individual with suspected COVID-19. Please note that this is to ensure the safety of our employees and undertake a comprehensive disinfection exercise at our facility. Employees have been directed to work from home, and there is no impact on our client deliverables as a result of this temporary evacuation,” a statement by the company read.

Meanwhile, another Bengaluru-based startup has shifted its office 480 kilometers away to a farm located in the foothills of the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu in a bid to keep their employees “safe and away from panic-situations”. The 12-member team of Vumonic Data Labs, which is originally based in HSR Layout in the city, has been working on a farm in Thevaram, a town in Theni district since March 2.

Fresh cases reported in Telangana

Another case of coronavirus was confirmed in Telangana on Saturday taking the total number of those infected to two, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said here. The patient with travel history to Italy has been admitted to the state-run Gandhi hospital in the city for quarantine purpose, Rao told the assembly. The samples of two others with suspected symptoms of the virus have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune, he said.

Goa shuts schools, colleges, pubs till March 31; tourists asked not to visit

Sawant also has asked tourists, both domestic and foreign to not visit Goa for tourism, and asked to refrain from taking holidays in the beach capital as a precautionary measure. The state is also moving to buy more thermal scanners to be installed at the airport, local ports and railway stations.