Rohit Shishodia
Amid reports of a death alleged to be due to corona virus in West Bengal, Mr Sanjeeva Kumar, Special Secretary, Health, Union Health Ministry, has clarified that the patient from Murshidabad, West Bengal, tested negative for COVID-19. Therefore, no death has been reported due to COVID-19 in the country.

According to Mr Kumar, a total of forty three cases have been reported so far in India.  Four new cases of COVID-19 have been reported since March 8, 2020. New cases have been reported from Ernakulum-Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu.

He informed that forty three out of the 3,003 samples have tested positive for COVID-19 with 2,694 samples having returned negative results.

A total of 8,74,708 international passengers from 8,255 flights have been screened at airports till now with 1,921 passengers identified as symptomatic. 177 of them have been hospitalized. 33,599 passengers are under observation. 21,867 passengers have completed their observation period.