Daily international passenger arrivals falls to 62,000: Hardeep Puri

New Delhi/ Washington/ Berlin: Coronavirus outbreak is a "matter of concern", Foreign Minister S Jaishankar told Parliament on Thursday.

"Exceptional situations require exceptional responses," Mr Jaishankar said, adding that "travel at this time is not recommended as it only heightens risks".

Kerala where 17 people have been infected with coronavirus has reported maximum cases in the country, followed by Haryana where 14 Italian tourists are isolated. Maharashtra has reported 11 cases, followed by Uttar Pradesh (10), Delhi (6) and Karnataka (4).

Around 6,000 Indians - including 1,100 pilgrims from Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir and 300 students - are stranded in Iran, one of the worst-affected countries in the world by the virus outbreak that originated in China's Wuhan, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said today. The initial focus is on "bringing back pilgrims, mostly stranded in Iran," he said.

The number of international passengers arriving at the country's airports has reduced to around 62,000 per day from 70,000 in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

The Haryana government declared a coronavirus epidemic in the northern State, which adjoins national capital Delhi.

State Health Minister Anil Vij said that an appeal has also been issued to persons who have travelled abroad in the last 14 days to self-isolate for at least two weeks.

He said a campaign has been launched across the state to identify such persons across educational institutions, nursing homes and hospitals in Haryana.

All hospitals in Haryana have been directed to create and maintain a data on all suspected cases and of those who have come in contact with such patients.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said that there was no proposal to adjourn the House in the wake of coronavirus scare in the country, while Parliament had only cancelled issuance of visitors passes in general as a precautionary measure.

Asked about any move to adjourn the Lower House of Parliament, the Speaker said: "No". Maharashtra, the ongoing Assembly session has been curtailed by six days.

Germany will spend what it takes to tackle the coronavirus which is likely to infect up to 70% of the population in Europe's largest economy, Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

"We will do what we need to get through this. And then at the end we will look at what that means for our budget," she told reporters, seeming to distance herself from Germany's policy of no new borrowing. Though conceding she did not know how the crisis would develop, Merkel said the risk was huge.

"When the virus is out there, and the population has no immunity and no vaccination or therapy exists, then a high percentage - experts say 60 to 70% of the population - will be infected, so long as this remains the case," she said.

Germany has confirmed three deaths related to the coronavirus. It has reported 1,567 cases, according to the Robert Koch Institute for disease control.

Merkel addressed the outbreak that the World Health Organisation is now calling a pandemic after mass-selling daily Bild berated her for what it called "the corona chaos". "No appearances, no speech, no leadership in the crisis," it wrote. Death toll in Italy has crossed 850.

US Defence Secretary Mark Esper''s visit to India on March 15-16 has been called off due to the coronavirus threat, Defence Ministry officials said on Thursday.

The trip, during which Esper was supposed to meet his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh, is among the several events being postponed because of the coronavirus infection.

US President Donald Trump has announced sweeping travel restrictions on 26 European countries in a bid to combat the spread of the coronavirus for 30 days.

The UK, Ireland and other non-Schengen countries are unaffected. US citizens are also exempt.

Spain's government underwent coronavirus testing Thursday after a minister tested positive and was quarantined with her partner, deputy prime minister Pablo Iglesias, and cases soared close to 3,000.