india

Updated: Mar 09, 2020 21:44 IST

A man, who returned from Italy last week, has tested positive for coronavirus, becoming the first case to be reported from Punjab, officials said on Monday.

With this, the total number of confirmed cases go up to 44 across the country.

The man tested positive for the disease last week after preliminary investigation and his samples were further sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune, which confirmed the earlier report on Monday.

“The man, who returned to Amritsar by an Air India flight from Milan in Italy, has tested positive for coronavirus. He had landed at Amritsar International Airport via Delhi on March 4 along with his two other family members,” Anurag Aggarwal, Punjab’s principal secretary (health), said, according to PTI.

His condition is “stable”, the principal health secretary said.

The state has said there are 5,964 people who have a history of travelling abroad and 10 of them have shown symptoms of coronavirus.

According to the department of health and family welfare, 3,609 people of those who came back to Punjab have spent the mandatory 28 days of observation and 1,388 are under observation as of Sunday.

It added 909 people are yet to be traced.