Number of coronavirus cases rises to 43, three-year-old from Kerala among those infected

The number of coronavirus cases in India rose to 43 on Monday with four people, including a three-year-old child in Kerala who had returned from Italy, testing positive for the disease, Health Ministry officials said on Monday.

Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu reported one case each, officials said. They added that no deaths have been reported from anywhere in the country.

Giving details, officials said the patient in Jammu, the first case in Jammu and Kashmir, had a travel history to Iran. The one in Delhi had travelled to Italy. And the third patient, from Uttar Pradesh's Meerut town, had come in contact with the six people from Agra who had tested positive for coronavirus.

An estimated 110,041 people from more than 90 countries have tested positive for the disease that has killed 3,825 people.

In the Kerala town of Kochi, officials said the three-year-old child who tested positive for coronavirus and its parents landed at the Cochin International Airport Limited at 6 am on March 7 from Italy.

They underwent thermal screening and the child was detected with symptoms of the disease. The family was immediately referred to the isolation ward of the Kalamassery Medical College Hospital, they said.

Samples of the parents have also been sent for lab tests, the officials added.

Up north, in Jammu, a 63-year-old woman who declared positive was among the two patients declared "high viral load cases" by the administration on the weekend.

They are undergoing treatment at the isolation ward of the Government Medical College (GMC) hospital and are in a stable condition, officials in Jammu said.

"The test report of the woman patient is positive, while the report of the other patient is still awaited," a Health Department official said.

The two with a travel history to Italy, South Korea and Iran had fled the hospital's isolation ward on Wednesday shortly after being admitted there but were brought back within hours of the incident, the official said.

Jammu and Kashmir administration spokesperson Rohit Kansal said they are watching the situation and have put 400 people under surveillance in Satawari and Sarwal areas of Jammu.

The number of COVID-19 cases in India, which was just six till last Tuesday, includes 16 Italians as well as three Kerala patients who were discharged last month following their recovery.

The coronavirus scare cast a shadow over Holi on Tuesday in large parts of north India with many people cancelling their celebrations.

In Kerala, notwithstanding the scare and strict government guidelines, lakhs of women took part in the famous "Attukal Pongala" festival.

Preparing 'pongala' (sweet offering) is part of the all-women ritual of the annual festival of the Attukal Bhahavathy Temple here, popularly known as the "Women's Sabarimala."

Unlike previous years, women devotees, including children and elders, could be seen wearing face masks while preparing the offering, as a precautionary measure in the wake of the virus outbreak.