Coronavirus LIVE | Toddler from Kerala, patient from J-K test positive, number of cases rises to 41 in India

An Indian Border Security Force (BSF) (2R) and a traffic volunteer (R), wearing facemasks as a preventive measure against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, check the passports of Bangladeshi citizens entering from Bangladesh at the India-Bangladesh border at Fulbari Border checkpoint some 16 kms from Siliguri on March 8, 2020. (Photo by DIPTENDU DUTTA / AFP)


The number of Coronavirus cases in India rose to 41 on Monday after a three-year-old toddler in Kerala and another person from Jammu and Kashmir tested positive.

At least 400 people in Assam have been quarantined after they came in contact with an American tourist who tested positive for the new coronavirus, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Sunday. The American, who tested positive in Bhutan, had travelled through Assam recently, the minister said. In a series of tweets, Mr Sarma said five people have been tested so far and the results have come negative.

The global death toll due to COVID-19 coronavirus has reached to 3,586 people and infected more than 1,00,000 across 92 nations, including 39 people in India since the outbreak first emerged in China in December. 5 more people have been tested positive for coronavirus in Kerala,  state health minister KK Shylaja said that 3 of the 5 people tested positive have a travel history from Italy and the other two are their family members who came in touch with them.

China on Sunday reported 27 new deaths from coronavirus, the lowest number of fatalities in more than a month, taking the death toll to 3,097, while the COVID-19 infections for the first time fell below 50 since the disease surfaced in Hubei province in January. All the 27 deaths occurred in the virus-hit central Hubei province, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said.

By the end of Saturday, 109 confirmed cases including two deaths in Hong Kong, 10 confirmed cases in Macao and 45 in Taiwan including one death were reported.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Saturday that a total of 21,114 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported by 93 countries and regions outside China – an increase of 3,633 infections from the previous day.

The number of confirmed cases worldwide has risen to 101,927, the WHO said on Saturday. According to WHO’s daily situation report on Saturday, there has been 3,486 deaths worldwide due to the coronavirus.

Colombia, the Vatican, Peru, Togo and Slovakia have reported cases of COVID-19 for the first time in the past 24 hours, the WHO report said.

The world health body has revised the transmission classification of Iceland, Palestine and Cameroon from “imported cases only” to “local transmission”, bringing the total number of countries and regions where local transmission emerged to 45 in addition to China.