The novel coronavirus cases in India climbed to 250 on Friday after more new cases were reported from various parts of the country. India's tally of Covid-19 cases includes fresh cases from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

The cases include 32 foreign nationals and four deaths reported from Delhi, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra so far. An Italian tourist, who had recovered’ from coronavirus died late Thursday night at a Jaipur hospital following a cardiac arrest. He was a heart and lungs patient and had recovered from Covid-19, SMS Medical College principal Sudhir Bhandari said.

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In West Bengal, a man with recent travel history to the UK tested positive for novel coronavirus on Friday. This is the second confirmed case in Bengal. A Saudi-returned man tested positive in Visakhapatnam of Andhra Pradesh on Friday. With a fresh case in the state, the Andhra tally now stands at three.

A 69-year-old woman, who recently returned from the United Kingdom, tested positive for coronavirus, taking the total number of cases in Punjab to eight, including five cases in Chandigarh. "The woman, a resident of Phase 3 A in Mohali, has tested (positive) for coronavirus," Mohali Deputy Commissioner Girish Dayalan told PTI.

Four fresh cases were reported in Lucknow on Friday. Now, 23 positive cases of coronavirus have been reported in Uttar Pradesh. Gujarat, which reported its first two patients on Thursday, recorded three new positive cases on Friday.

Two more persons have tested positive for coronavirus in Gujarat, taking the count in the state to seven and India's to 247.

Three more persons, meanwhile, tested positive for coronavirus infection in Maharashtra, taking the number of such cases in the state to 52. Maharashtra health minister said new cases were detected in Mumbai, Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. Till Thursday night, 49 cases of Covid-19 had been found in Maharashtra.

On Friday, Madhya Pradesh reported its first Covid-19 cases. Four persons were tested positive in Jabalpur. All four had returned from Dubai and Germany.

In Delhi, four new cases were reported on Thursday, taking the total in the national capital to 14. The Delhi Health Department said new cases included two people from West Bengal, who had returned from Italy. They are now in quarantine at the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) Chhawala facility.

Of 14 in Delhi, three patients have been discharged so far. A total of 1,96,200 passengers who have returned from the coronavirus-affected countries have been screened at the Delhi airport till March 18 and placed under surveillance.

A Spain-retuned couple in Rajasthan tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday, taking the total number of confirmed cases in Rajasthan to nine.

The couple, aged around 30, have been kept in isolation at Sawai Man Singh Hospital. They landed at Delhi from Spain through Dubai on March 17 and reached Jaipur by a taxi in the early hours on Wednesday. After their one-hour stay at a hotel, they were moved to the Jaipur hospital at 4 am and kept in isolation there, he added.

Two Indian Forest Service probationers who recently returned from a study tour in Spain also tested positive for coronavirus, taking the total number of confirmed cases in Uttarakhand to three. All three were part of a 28-member group which had returned from the study tour in Spain recently.

In Karnataka, a 35-year-old man from Kodagu, who had returned from Dubai, tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 15. Two of 15 patients, who were undergoing treatment will be discharged on Friday.

A 21-year-old student who returned from Ireland became Tamil Nadu's third coronavirus positive case while authorities said the second patient had not travelled to Nepal as suspected but ruled out community spread of the infection in the state.

The number of cases in Ladakh has climbed to 10 while Jammu and Kashmir tally stands at four. The total number of confirmed cases in India was 195 on Thursday.

JANTA CURFEW ON SUNDAY

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday asked the entire country to observe 'Janta curfew' on Sunday.

In a nearly 30-minute national broadcast, PM Modi asked people to stay indoors and work from home as much as possible while underscoring the dangers of coronavirus, saying the world has never seen a crisis as grave as this.

"Even World War I and II did not affect as many countries as coronavirus has done," Modi said, asking people to avoid this mindset that the disease will not affect India much when it has hit hard many developed countries.

Amid incidents of people resorting to hoarding food items in panic, Modi said "panic-buying" must be avoided and essential things, including medicines, should not be hoarded, adding his government is working to ensure their supply.

Pitching for "social distancing", Modi called for 'Janta curfew' on March 22 from 7 am-9 pm, saying no citizen, barring those in essential services, should get out of their house, and asserted that it will be a litmus test to show how much India is ready to take on the challenge of the coronavirus pandemic.

"This Sunday, that is on 22 March, all citizens must follow this curfew from 7 am until 9 pm. During this curfew, we shall neither leave our homes, nor get onto the streets and refrain from roaming about in our societies or areas. Only those associated with emergency and essential services may leave their homes," PM Modi said.

NO INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS IN INDIA FOR A WEEK

No international commercial flight will be allowed to disembark its passengers, foreigners or Indians, on Indian soil after 1.30 am on March 23, aviation regulator DGCA said on Thursday.

While IndiGo said senior employees would take paycuts as the pandemic has caused a "precipitous drop in revenues", Vistara announced that in the interest of "customer convenience", it would be operating seven international flights from Delhi to Kathmandu and Singapore between March 20 and March 22.

SpiceJet also announced that it was "forced" to suspend most of its international flights from Saturday onward due to the "unprecedented situation" arising over the novel coronavirus pandemic.

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