Confirmed cases of coronavirus in India rise to 315

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in India has risento 315, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said, on Saturday.

It is amid this spurt that the country will observe an unprecedented shutdown on Sunday following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal for a 'Janata curfew’. Under this, people have been urged to voluntarily stay indoors to check the spread of coronavirus while public transport will be suspended or curtailed and all markets and shops except those dealing in essential items will be closed on the day.

The Indian government has been keeping a close watch on the preparedness of the health facilities in the wake of the rising number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on Saturday presided over a video conferencing with the state governments and discussed the critical care units being established across the country. To this end, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, MoHFW, while addressing the reporters in a press briefing in New Delhi,said 111 labs across the country had been made functional.

Earlier in the day, theICMRrevised its strategy to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus. It said all hospitalised patients with severe acute respiratory illness, shortness of breath and having fever and cough will now be tested forCOVID-19infection. The newICMRguidelines also said asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of a confirmed case should be tested once between day 5 and day 14 of coming in his/her contact.

India has so far witnessed cases of COVID-19 mostly related to travel and local transmission from imported cases. Community transmission of the disease has not been documented till now.