Chandigarh reports first case of coronavirus
Chandigarh has reported a first confirmed case of novel coronavirus, where a 23-year-old woman has been tested positive for COVID-19. The woman had a travel history for England and was tested positive on Wednesday. The infected woman is a resident of Chandigarh’s Sector 21 and had visited a doctor after complaints of cold and fever upon her landing at the Amritsar airport on March 15.
Her samples were then sent to the testing centre at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), which returned with positive results on late Wednesday night.
According to the GMCH authorities, the patient, along with her mother, had been put under isolation and surveillance at the hospital, while her remaining family members had been quarantined at home.
Meanwhile, the number of global coronavirus infections shot past 2,00,000 on Wednesday, as governments across Europe, North America and Asia rolled out tough measures to put the brakes on the ferocious spread of the deadly pandemic.
Worldwide fatalities topped 8,000 and more deaths have now been recorded in Europe, the new virus epicentre, than in Asia since the outbreak first emerged in China in December.
From Belgium to Britain and the United States, governments across the world have imposed draconian lockdown measures, forcing unprecedented social change and sending financial markets into a tailspin.
The European Union sealed its borders on Wednesday, barring travellers from outside the bloc for 30 days to try to slow the rapid spread of the virus.
There are more than 79,000 cases across Europe, with Italy, Spain and France leading infections and fatalities.
As the specter of a deep global recession looms large, London and Washington announced massive economic stimulus packages after coming under fire over their response to the crisis. But financial markets were unimpressed, with US, European and Asian stocks all sinking on Wednesday.
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