24 in Army's Research and Referral hospital test Covid positive

New Delhi: Twenty-four people including serving and retired armed forces personnel have tested positive for coronavirus in the Army's Research and Referral hospital in the national capital, officials said on Tuesday. All of them have been shifted to the Army's Base hospital in Delhi Cantonment, they said. The 24 people included serving and retired military personnel as well as their dependents, the officials said.

Forty-five Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel have tested coronavirus positive and 167 have been quarantined, according to officials, here on Tuesday.

These personnel belong to two companies that are deputed for internal security and law and order duty with the Delhi Police. While 43 belong to the 22 Battalion, based at Tigri on Delhi's outskirt, two men to the 50 Battalion.

India has so far been able to stave off community transmission of COVID-19, said Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, expressing the hope that "behavioural changes" brought about by the infection could become the "new normal" for a healthy society after the pandemic abates.

The nation in a post-coronavirus future could well look back on the pandemic period as a "blessing in disguise" if Indians imbibe hand, respiratory and environmental hygiene and practise it in their everyday lives, the minister said.Underlining the importance of the lockdown, which has been extended till May 17, the minister said health should be on the radar just as much as the economy.