New Delhi: The number of novel coronavirus cases on Friday rose to 81, which include 16 Italians and one Canadian, Health Ministry officials said.
As of today, 81 confirmed cases of #COVID19 in the country. Of these, 3 from #Kerala were treated and discharged. In addition, seven more from Safdarjung have also recovered.
— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) March 13, 2020
Addressing reporters, officials said coronavirus is not a health emergency and that there is no need to panic.
Officials said so far, India has evacuated 1,031 people, including from the Maldives, US, Madagascar, and China.
“An exercise will be undertaken on Saturday to bring back Indian passengers stranded in Iran. Air India will also send a flight to Milan on Saturday to bring back stranded Indians. It will land on Sunday morning at Delhi airport,” officials said.
Also read: Coronavirus: Supreme Court to Only Hear ‘Urgent Matters’ From March 16
Meanwhile, 124 evacuees from Japan, 112 evacuees from China are being discharged from Friday onwards after testing negative for COVID-19, they added.
The Centre also decided to allow international traffic only through 19 border check-posts out of 37 and decided to continue the suspension of Indo-Bangladesh cross border passenger trains and buses till April 15, or earlier, if so decided.
With the World Health Organisation declaring coronavirus a pandemic, the officials said 42,000 people across the country are under community surveillance.