A 64-year-old COVID-19 patient passed away at Mumbai's Kasturba hospital today taking total fatalities to three India. The other two deaths have been reported from Delhi and Karnataka.

Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus cases in India rose to 125 on Tuesday, even as the Government put the country in a near-total lockdown with states shutting down schools and colleges and banning gatherings.

With the positive cases of COVID-19 showing an increase, the government after a meeting of a group of ministers (GoM) proposed a set of social distancing measures to be in force till March 31.

The government has advised people to maintain 1-meter distance between people till March 31, as a precautionary measure. The government has also restricted entry of travellers from the European Union, Turkey and the United Kingdom from March 18, 2020. However, this decision will be reviewed again.

Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry said that compulsory quarantine of 14 days has been put in place for passengers coming from UAE, Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait.

The number of deaths around the world linked to the new coronavirus topped 7,000 after Italy announced a new surge in fatalities. A total of 7,007 people have died, with 175,536 infections recorded globally. China has the highest number of fatalities at 3,213, followed by Italy with 2,158 deaths and almost 28,000 cases.

Copyright: The Statesman/Asia News Network