Coronavirus Live: New York declares state emergency amid new virus outbreak

A 45-year-old man from Tamil Nadu, who recently visited Oman, has tested positive for the coronavirus infection, state health minister C Vijayabaskar said on Saturday, adding he was stable and under observation.

This is the first positive case from the state.

Amid growing concern over the spread of coronavirus, the Odisha government on Saturday put restrictions on foreign visit of ministers and senior officers, while Governor Ganeshi Lal and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said they will not celebrate Holi.

The state government has also exempted its employees from using the biometric system to mark their attendance until further orders, an official statement said.

Pope Francis decided to deliver Sunday's prayer by livestream and Italy called in retired doctors as the new coronavirus epidemic gathered strength and emptied streets in Europe's worst affected country.

The 83-year-old pontiff broke with centuries of tradition by enlisting the help of technology to keep crowds from descending on Saint Peter's Square for the traditional Angelus Prayer.

Twenty-one people aboard a cruise ship that was barred from docking in San Francisco have tested positive for coronavirus, US officials said on Friday, as the fast-spreading respiratory disease was reported in half a dozen new U.S. states.

Vice President Mike Pence, who is running the US response to the outbreak, said at a news conference that 19 crew members and two passengers out of 46 people tested so far on the Grand Princess ocean liner had the virus.

The leader of Italy's co-ruling Democratic Party (PD), Nicola Zingaretti, said on Saturday he had tested positive for coronavirus becoming the first senior Italian politician to be infected.

"I have coronavirus too", Zingaretti said in a video posted on Facebook, adding he was well and in self-isolation at home.

Shanghai increased airport screening on Saturday as imported coronavirus infections from countries such as Italy and Iran emerge as the biggest source of new cases in China outside Hubei, the province where the outbreak originated.

Mainland China had 99 new confirmed cases on Friday, according to official data. Of the 25 that were outside Hubei, 24 came from outside China.

Two persons from Ladakh with travel history to Iran, 1 from Tamil Nadu who visited Oman test positive for coronavirus, officials said, reported news agency PTI.

Two persons from Andhra Pradesh’s Kadapa district, who returned from recent overseas trips, were admitted to a government hospital in the temple town of Tirupati on Friday night with symptoms of coronavirus.

Coronovirus continue to wreak havoc with sporting events as India's 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers match against Qatar scheduled for March 26 has now been postponed due to the spread of the deadly virus.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Saturday reviewed preparedness in all the districts of the state for combating the deadly coronavirus.

Malta's first case of coronavirus has been detected in a 12-year-old Italian girl who lives on the island, Health Minister Chris Fearne said on Saturday.

With an increase in load of screening samples from suspected coronavirus (COVID-19) cases with symptoms and travel history to affected countries, as many as 52 testing labs have been commissioned across India, including two in Delhi.

A flight from Tehran on Saturday brought to the national capital swab samples of Indians in Iran who are suspected of having coronavirus infection, an airport official said.

The flight, operated by Mahan Air, returned with many Iranian nationals at around 10:30 am on Saturday, an official at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here said.

The number of coronavirus patients in Germany stood at 684 on Saturday morning, the country's public health agency, the Robet Koch Institute, said, an increase of 45 over Friday evening.