Two confirmed cases of coronavirus were reported today from India. One of the patient is from New Delhi while the other one is from Telangana, the ministry of health and family welfare said. It said that both the patients are stable and are being closely monitored.

The person from Delhi has a travel history from Italy and is now being treated at RML Hospital while the one from Telangana has a travel history from Dubai.

This is not the first positive case of the disease in India. Earlier, COVID-19 was confirmed among 3 students from Kerala but later on all of them were discharged from hospital after treatment.

A suspected patient of coronavirus admitted to the SMS Hospital in Jaipur is an Italian tourist, hospital officials here learnt on Monday.

According to a travel agent, the 69-year-old man came with his group from Udaipur on February 28 and checked in Hotel Ramada here. In the night, he complained of breathlessness, and was taken to a private hospital where he was kept overnight.

The next day, he was shifted to the SMS Hospital where he was screened for HINI and coronavirus. His samples were taken and tested in the hospital lab but turned out negative.

On Monday, the patient's sample were again tested in the SMS microbiology lab and tested positive. A sample has also been sent to Pune for a confirmation check.

Indians have been advised to especially avoid non-essential travel to Iran, Italy, Korea and Singapore, health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said in a press briefing. Depending on the global evolving scenario, travel restrictions could be imposed as a precautionary measure.

Asking people to not panic, he said whenever in doubt related to symptoms of the coronavirus disease one must approach the government's helpline number. "The situation is being monitored at the highest level. The Prime Minister is himself keeping a close eye on the situation," Vardhan said.

Under the travel advisory, existing visas including e-visas will remain suspended for China and Iran. As the situation develops, the travel restrictions may be further extended to other countries also.

As the news of coronavirus was reported, the stock markets too took a u-turn. The Sensex, which had gone up by around 800 points in morning trade, was trading lower by 330 points.

Coronavirus has infected almost 90,000 people globally and caused more than 3,000 deaths, including 2,912 in China so far. The rapid spread of the coronavirus has increased fears of a pandemic, with the World Health Organization (WHO) raising its global spread and impact risk alert to "very high" on Friday.

In Italy, the number of deaths from the illness rose to 29 and the accumulated total of cases reached 1,128, authorities said. Schools and universities will stay closed for a second consecutive week in three northern Italian regions.

China, where the epidemic began in December, reported only 202 new cases over the previous 24 hours with another 42 deaths. That brings the country's total number of reported cases to 80,026 with 2,912 deaths in all. The city of Wuhan accounted for most of the new cases, but also saw 2,570 patients released.

Monday's increase was China's lowest since Jan. 21. China still has about three-fourths of the world's nearly 89,000 cases worldwide, but outbreaks were surging in other countries, with South Korea, Italy and Iran seeing sharp increases.

The United States counted 80 cases as of Sunday and two deaths, both men with existing health problems who had been hospitalized in Washington state. The U.S. total includes evacuees from a virus-stricken cruise ship and from Wuhan, but new cases among California health workers, in New York, Rhode Island and Washington raised concerns on both U.S. coasts.

(Agency inputs)

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