Senior citizens, children must stay indoors: Health Min on coronavirus

The Health Ministry on Thursday advised senior citizens and children below the age of 10 years to stay indoors in view of the spread of coronavirus, even as they assured the general public that there was no community transmission of the disease in the country so far.

The ministry also said the department of pharmaceuticals and the ministry of consumer affairs have been asked to take necessary action against anyone charging exorbitant prices for masks, sanitizers and other health-related logistic materials.

"Senior citizens above 65 except for public representatives/govt servants/medical professionals should be advised to remain at home," the ministry said.

Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, Dammu Ravi said 201 Indians were evacuated from Iran on Wednesday.

"On March 21 Air India would be going to Rome to bring back students or any Indians stranded there. The flight would return on March 22," said Joint Secretary, Aviation Ministry, Rubina Ali.

The Health Ministry also said there was no community transmission so far in the country and the fourth death reported from Punjab was that of an elderly person who had co-morbid conditions like had diabetes, cardiac issues.

The Health Ministry also said that to discourage unnecessary travel and to prevent the vulnerable category of senior citizens from undertaking unnecessary travels, concessional booking of all tickets except for patients, students and Divyangjan category for unreserved and reserved segment have been suspended form 00:00 hrs of March 20 till further advisory.

India on Thursday announced that it will not allow any international commercial passenger aircraft to land in the country from March 22 to March 29.