Benjamin Netanyahu (Source: @indmtel) | Photo Credit: Twitter

Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Wednesday, urged his countrymen to adopt the Indian way of greeting - 'Namaste' - instead of usual handshakes.

His request came as a bid to initiate measures to prevent the spread of the deadly virus. While speaking at a press conference, Netanyahu said that several other measures will be announced to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

He, however, said that simple measures should be replaced in the normal lives of the civilians. He further demonstrated as to how the Indians do 'Namaste' while greeting people.

Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu @netanyahu encourages Israelis to adopt the Indian way of greeting #Namaste at a press conference to mitigate the spread of #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/gtSKzBDjl4 — India in Israel (@indemtel) March 4, 2020

"We are in the middle of a global epidemic", Netanyahu said, while adding that despite the current situation, Israel has done well as it was quick in taking action to prevent the spread of the virus in the country.

"We have had to take rigorous steps to slow down the spread of the disease in Israel, we have taken select isolation and flight policies and measures for flights," he further said.

Prakash Javadekar's 'Namaskar' request

Meanwhile, Union I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar also said that one should now greet each other with folded hands. "When it is to be used, everyone has to use... there is not a need. But cleaning hands properly, being careful when going to crowded places and the third is doing namaskar," Javadekar said on Wednesday.

His statement came while answering a media query on the reported shortage of face masks. The minister, while speaking about the matter said that masks may not be needed every time and there is no one solution to the problem.

Spread of coronavirus across the world

More than 93,000 cases in connection with the virus have been identified around the world.

The virus, that was unknown at the time, started emerging towards the end of December last year when China alerted the WHO about several cases of unusual pneumonia in Wuhan.

The source of the coronavirus is believed to be a 'wet market' in Wuhan that sold both dead and live animals including fish and birds. Since then, the virus has spread to over 60 countries.