Delhi resident tests positive for coronavirus, total 31 people infected in India
The patient has a travel history from Thailand and Malaysia
A resident of Uttam Nagar in west Delhi has tested positive for novel coronavirus, taking the number of infected people in the country to 31.
"One more Covid-19 case in Delhi (resident of Uttam Nagar) has been confirmed, taking the total number of positive cases in the country to 31. The patient has a travel history from Thailand and Malaysia," Sanjeeva Kumar, Special Secretary (Health), Union Health Ministry, said on Friday.
Authorities have widened the number of people under watch for the illness to close to 30,000, ramping up containment efforts that also included an order for all primary schools in the national capital to be closed for the rest of the month.
The country now has 28 active patients - three patients in Kerala recovered last month - and authorities are now looking for more people who may have been in close contact with them.
The contact-tracing operation is crucial to avert a wider community transmission. "…in addition to Covid-19 cases related to travel, some cases of community transmission have also been observed, it has been decided to involve district collectors and States have been asked to form rapid response teams as the district, block and village levels," the Union health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
All confirmed patients are stable, including the three from Kerala who are now discharged and disease-free, the ministry statement added.
On Friday, the Sensex plummeted over 1,400 points in opening session led by massive selloff in global stocks as volatility peaked amid concerns over coronavirus outbreak.
The number of people sickened by the rapidly spreading virus was close to 97,000 on Thursday evening, with over 3,300 of these believed to have succumbed to the consequent illness. The pathogen, similar to the Sars virus that spread in 2002-2003, leads to cough, fever and, in serious cases, respiratory distress that can turn fatal.
The virus started spreading in China in late December, but is now recording an exponential spike outside of the country. Iran, South Korea and Italy are among the nations where the outbreak is now most serious.
