By Aminul Islam Mirja
NEW DELHI, Mar 4, 2020 (BSS) – In the wake of sharp rise of coronavirus cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today declared that he won’t participate in any Holi events this year since experts have advised against “mass gatherings to avoid spread of the deadly virus”.
“Experts across the world have advised to reduce mass gatherings to avoid the spread of COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Hence, this year I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan programme,” PM Modi tweeted this morning.
Modi’s latest tweet comes after he said on Tuesday that he had “an extensive review regarding preparedness on the COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus” and “there is no need to panic”.
Besides, Union Home Minster Amit Shah also echoed the same sentiment saying that he has also decided not to participate in any Holi Milan celebration this year.
“Holi is a very important festival for we Indians but in the wake of Coronavirus, I have decided not to participate in any Holi Milan celebration this year,” he said in a separate tweet message.
Amit Shah also appealed everyone to avoid public gatherings and take a good care of them and their families.
Their tweets came as Union health minister Harsh Vardhan today in a press conference said that 28 coronavirus cases have been reported in the country in last three days.
The minister said 14 out of 21 Italian nationals have found positive for coronavirus. They have been sent to at Indo-Tibetan Border Police’s (ITBP) quarantine facility in Chawla.
The minister also informed that the Delhi resident who tested positive for the virus has infected six members of his family who are in Agra. All 6 members tested positive for coronavirus.
The health minister said that India will now be screening all passengers from all countries as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus outbreak.
“From now on, all flights and passengers will be part of universal screening, not just the 12 countries which we had listed earlier,” he added.
As part of pre-cautionary measurers following fresh confirmed cases reported in the country, the Indian Navy has postponed its largest ever multi-nation war game exercise styled “Milan 2020”.
The event was scheduled to begin on March 18 in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh of the country. Navies of 41 countries had been invited for the exercise, and more than 30 had confirmed their presence.
However, the Indian government had earlier suspended all regular and e-visa issued to nationals of Italy, Iran, South Korea and Japan on or before Tuesday.
The Coronavirus outbreak originated in China’s Wuhan city in December and has spread to over 60 countries since then, killing more than 3,000 and infecting over 90,000 across the world.