Coronavirus: Paytm shuts down office, after employee tests positive

• Number of cases detected: 29
  
• Number of cases recovered: 3
  
• States where cases were detected: Kerala, Hyderabad Delhi, UP

March 5, 10:30 am The group of 14 Italian tourists who tested positive for COVID-19 has been admitted to the Medanta hospital in Haryana. The hospital in a statement said, "Medanta has received, at the special request of the government, 14 asymptomatic persons suspected to have COVID-19.

March 5, 08:30 am A Paytm, Gurugram office employee tested positive of Coronavirus, increasing the number of cases to 29 in India. The company said the employee recently travelled to Italy for a short vacation. Paytm’s Noida headquarters and Gurugram office will remain closed for the next few days in order to decontaminate the workplace.

06:00 pm As the number cases reported on Coronavirus rises, the demand for masks, sanitizers and gloves jumped by 316% in the last three months, according to Tradeindia.com, a B2B online marketplace. "Pharma industry players like Dettol and Pee Safe cited the rise in their manufacturing units as people are buying more N95 or surgical face masks to protect themselves from the threat of coronavirus," 'said Sandip Chhettri, COO of the platform.

03:00 pm Raheja Mindspace in Hyderabad's tech park was evacuated after the news that an employee was suspected of coronavirus, spread.

02:30 pm Union Minister for Health Harsh Vardhan in a press briefing today said there are 28 people infected with coronavirus in India, which includes a group of 16 Italian tourists and 12 Indians from Agra, Delhi and Telangana.

02:00 pm Retail giant Amazon's Cloud arm Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Wednesday announced it has cancelled its flagship Summit in India owing to the growing new coronavirus concerns. AWS was scheduled to organise the summit in Mumbai from April 7-9.

Coronavirus, which is spreading rapidly across the world, has infected more than 90,000 people around the globe. In total, 28 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in India so far, while three of them have recovered.

Currently, India has two infected patients, one in New Delhi travelled from Italy, while the one from Telangana travelled from Dubai. The other include six people from Agra who got infected after coming in contact with the Delhi patient and a group of 17 tourists who travelled to Rajasthan and later Agra in Uttar Pradesh, which includes 16 Italians and an 1 Indian driver.

However, the first tranche of Indians evacuated from Wuhan tested negative and were all released from quarantine at Manesar in Haryana, last month.

The Health Ministry, in a press conference on March 2, assured all help and urged people to stay vigilant. Harsh Vardhan advised people to refrain from non-essential travel to Iran, Korea, China and Singapore. The ministry also released a new travel advisory for international travellers available on their website.

The epidemic has spread over 65 countries now and has killed around 3,203 people.