Iran issued its most dire warning yet on Tuesday about the outbreak of the new coronavirus ravaging the country, suggesting “millions” could die in the Islamic Republic if the public keeps travelling and ignoring health guidance. A state television journalist who also is a medical doctor gave the warning only hours after hard-line Shiite faithful the previous night pushed their way into the courtyards of two major shrines that had just been closed over fears of the virus. Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader issued a religious ruling prohibiting “unnecessary” travel in the country.
The Tamil Nadu government has drawn up plans to conduct thermal screening of passengers at railway stations following the coronavirus threat, Health Minister C Vijayabhaskar said on Tuesday. The government’s only plea to the people was to avoid travelling unless necessary, he said. Talking to reporters after reviewing precautionary measures at the central railway station here, he said thermal screening would be taken up in association with railway police and health department staff as part of an awareness campaign.
Iran says the new coronavirus has killed 135 more people, a 13 per cent spike that raises the death toll to 988 amid 16,169 infections. That’s according to Iran Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour, who gave the figure at a televised news conference Tuesday. The death toll’s continued sharp increase worries experts that the outbreak in the Islamic Republic is far from being contained.
The ongoing Pakistan Super League (PSL) was on Tuesday suspended after the country’s Cricket Board revealed that a foreign showed symptoms of the dreaded COVID-19 with former captain-turned-commentator Ramiz Raja claiming that it could be England’s Alex Hales. The PSL had entered the knockout stages and semifinal matches were due to be played on Tuesday and final on Wednesday in Lahore.
A 68-year old woman has tested positive for coronavirus in Mahe region of Puducherry, becoming the first confirmed case in the union territory, a senior official said on Tuesday. The condition of the patient was ‘stable’ in the Government General Hospital in Mahe, an enclave of the union territory in Kerala.
Tokyo 2020 organisers said Tuesday they had taken the “heartbreaking” decision to scale back parts of the Olympic torch relay due to the coronavirus, but stressed that spectators would still be allowed to watch from the roadside. Chief executive Toshiro Muto told reporters that the “grand start” of the torch relay from the disaster-hit Fukushima province would take place without spectators “in order to prevent the spread of infections”. Japanese Olympic organisers had already scaled down festivities to celebrate the flame’s arrival at a military base, scrapping plans to involve 200 children.
Egypt has placed over 300 families under quarantine in a Delta village to stem the spread of the new coronavirus after two deaths were recorded this month originating from the area. “We have confined more than 300 families to their homes where they will remain in quarantine,” Health Minister Hala Zayed told late-night television host Amr Adib on Monday.
The Rajasthan government on Tuesday banned all gatherings at public places exceeding 50 people till March 31 to fight the coronavirus outbreak, said an official statement. The ban was imposed as per directions of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot who decided to resort to the precautionary measure after a high-level meeting on late Monday night to take stock of the situation, the statement added. The ban will be in force till March 31 after which the situation will be reviewed and appropriate decision taken, it added.
