Amid concerns over a Delhi resident having contracted Coronavirus in Italy, a Noida school on Tuesday decided to shut down the premises for two days and also postpone its annual examinations.

It is learnt that a student of the Shriram Millennium school in Sector 135 Noida is the child of the patient, who is under medical observation, after being confirmed with the deadly COVID-19 following his arrival from Italy – the hardest-hit European nation.

A total of 40 students of the school have been tested for the virus and sent to a 28-day isolation, the Chief Medical Officer of Gautam Buddh Nagar said.

The school has reportedly taken all precautionary measures and are in constant contact with the Health Ministry to monitor the situation.

During the period, the school will be sanitized. A school bus of the institution will also be sanitized.

Chief Medical Officer of Gautam Buddh Nagar, Anurag Bhargav, said the COVID-19 infected man had attended a birthday party last week in which his children, as well as their schoolmates, were present.

The school administration sprung into action after the news started circulating on social media.

“Dear Parents, due to certain unavoidable circumstances we will be postponing the exams scheduled today. The new dates will be communicated shortly,” a message by school administration on Tuesday read.

The Noida campus of the school has been shut down and officials from the Health Ministry have reached the spot to sanitise the school as well as take samples for further tests to verify if others in contact with the student or his parents have been infected with COVID-19 virus.

According to screenshots of Whatsaap messages being circulated online, the student’s parent had thrown a birthday party on February 28, and several other students of the school had participated in the celebrations.

Amid the Coronavirus scare in Delhi NCR, a second school in Noida has also announced that it will remain closed till March 9 as a precautionary measure. In a statement, Shiv Nadar School, located in Noida’s Sector 168, said it has decided to “close the school from March 4 until March 09 for all students and staff in order to sanitise our spaces and completely remove all scope for the further spread of the virus.”

Meanwhile, the Government in a notification, informed that six cases with high viral load have been detected during sample testing in Agra.

These are the ones who have come in contact with the COVID-19 patient from Delhi. All of them have been kept in isolation.

The samples are being sent to National Institute of Virology for confirmation, the notification further said.

Contact-tracing of the persons who have come in contact with these six persons is also being done simultaneously through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP) network.

One suspected case has also been reported from Lucknow. The suspect in Lucknow has shown symptoms of the deadly virus and has recently returned from Dubai.

Hotels and tourists sites in Agra have been instructed to inform the office of the Chief Medical Officer as soon as visitors from Italy, Iran or China arrive so that they can be screened for coronavirus infection.

Meanwhile, the Telangana government has issued advisory for its people amid the outbreak of a positive case of the COVID-19 in the state. It has also launched a 24/7 helpline service to assist the people who are experiencing symptoms related to the virus.

The 24-year-old software engineer, who works in Bengaluru, had recently returned from Dubai and was tested positive for the virus.

The techie had worked with people from Hong Kong in Dubai last month where he is suspected to have contracted the virus.

The patient has been quarantined and is being treated at Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad.

In the wake of its first case of Coronavirus, the Telangana government has decided to set up a 24/7 helpline service to assist the people who are experiencing symptoms related to the new Coronavirus.

Meanwhile, an Italian tourist tested positive for the virus in Rajasthan on Monday. The 69-year-old man has been placed under isolation at the government-run Sawai Man Singh Hospital in Jaipur.

The man was part of a group of 20 tourists, who are now in Agra.

Two separate blood tests on him at the SMS Hospital had come up with contradictory findings.

The first sample collected from him on Saturday tested negative but the man’s condition deteriorated, Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma told the state assembly.

A second sample was then taken and its report received on Monday indicated that he had the virus.

Following this, his blood samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune for further confirmation.

So far, five cases have been reported from India, with three emerging from the southern state of Kerala. All the three patients — a female and two males — who were tested coronavirus positive were studying in Wuhan. However, all the three were discharged from hospital after they recovered from the disease.

The Centre has evacuated Indians as well as foreign nationals at least thrice from the COVID-19-affected China. Suspected persons were quarantined at the Chhawala and Manesar isolation camps arranged by the Army and the ITBP.

The virus which has spread to more than 70 countries has reportedly infected over 90,000 people globally.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the world is entering “uncharted territory” as pockets of COVID-19 infections continue to rise.

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