Coronavirus LIVE Update: India's Cases Rise To 59,92,532; 94,503 Dead

Delhi's positively confirmed COVID-19 case attended a birthday party in Agra from where six people were confirmed to have a high viral load. Their samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology Pune for further testing. 

Students of two Noida schools who attended the birthday party were advised to be quarantined while the two schools are going to be shut till March 6, 2020 for sanitisation.  

The person who tested positive for COVID-19 from Delhi travelled back to India from Vienna in an Air India flight on February 25th. Air India has asked its crew to self-quarantine itself for 14 days. 

#FlyAI : This is for the attention of passengers who flew on AI154 Vienna-Delhi of 25th Feb' 20. One of the passengers has tested positive for #coronavirus. Please follow the protocol notified by the Ministry of Health regarding Corona Virus. Kindly visit https://t.co/YR6yHUi4Or.

— Air India (@airindiain) March 3, 2020

India's two new cases emerged amid extensive screening efforts undertaken by the Indian government. Read about them here. 

The Indian government suspended visas to Italy, Iran, South Korea, and Japan along with the earlier suspended versions with China as these new areas emerged as recent epicentres for the virus. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi adviced the public to not spread panic amid the rising cases of the Coronavirus. 

There is no need to panic. We need to work together, take small yet important measures to ensure self-protection. pic.twitter.com/sRRPQlMdtr

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 3, 2020

India Confirms Two New Cases Of Coronavirus

On March 2, 2020 India confirmed two new cases of COVID-19. 

One person in Delhi travelling from Italy and another person in Hyderabad travelling from Dubai tested positive for the virus. 

India On Coronavirus

India confirmed its first COVID-19 case on January 30,2020 in a student who returned to Kerala from Wuhan, China. 

The second and third case tested on February 2 and February 6 also in Kerala. 

All these three successfully recovered and were discharged from the hospital. 

Fake News About Coronavirus

Videos of old different events were combined and shared as China killing its Coronavirus patients, a video of a mock drill was shared as police atrocity, older videos of the PM and President of China visiting mosques were passed off as them worshipping for Coronavirus, an Indonesian market was shared as the Chinese markert through which Coronavirus was spread were some of the videos being shared with misleading narratives surrounding the Coronavirus. 

BOOM also debunked fake news surrounding older patents being shared as China's plot to affect people and China seeking approval to kill 20,000 of  its positively confirmed cases. 

Food Products Related To Spread of Coronavirus

Food and drinks have been falsely associated to the spread, cure, and treatment of COVID-19. 

The World Health Organization has stated that a specific prevention or treatment method for this virus has not been identified, yet. 

In spite of this statement, social media platforms are filled with household remedies for dealing with the virus. 

Avoiding ice-creams and cold food, avoiding chickens, consuming boiled garlic and boiled ginger, drinking alcohol, consuming weed will sadly not keep COVID-19 away! 

The virus can be kept at bay by maintaining good personal hygiene and washing hands with sanitizer, avoiding raw and undercooked food according to the World Health Organization. 

Similarly, the source has not been identified but bats have repeatedly been claimed to be sources of the virus. A false video of bats as well as pigs have been falsely linked to COVID-19. 

Misinformation around the Coronavirus is rampantly prevalent in the country. 

Two fake advisories went viral stating that the Indian government was asking people to keep their throats moist and avoid crowded places and was asking people to not purchase Chinese goods during Holi. BOOM debunked both these advisories. 

The government has only issued travel advisories to all the countries affected by the Coronavirus. Along with this, the Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Sidha, and Homeopathy) issed certain medicines known to treat common colds. 

In December 2019, Wuhan in China witnessed the outbreak of a novel strain of Coronavirus whose source, methods of prevention and treatment have not been identified yet. Coronavirus is a family of viruses that create flu like symptoms. The Severely Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak of 2002 as well as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) of 2012 also belong to the Coronavirus family. 

The World Health Organization renamed the 2019-nCoV to COVID-19 on February 12 and also declared it as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30, 2020. 

Read our previous monitors here, here, here and here.