AYUSH medicines are promotive ones

Shirdi/New Delhi/Milan/Barcelona: Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust on Sunday appealed to devotees to postpone their visit to Shirdi for a few days in view of coronavirus outbreak in the country.

"As per the directives of the government, I request the devotees to postpone their visit to Shirdi for a few days," said Arun Dongre, Chief Executive Officer of Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust, Shirdi.

Shirdi Saibaba Temple welcomes over 1 lakh devotees every day. This appeal from the temple trust due to killer virus, will certainly afftect thousands of devotees visiting the temple, especially from Telangana and AP.

On Saturday, the Siddhivinayak temple located in Prabhadevi has instructed all its employees to wear masks, while hand sanitizers have been provided to everyone inside the temple.

Siddhivinayak Temple Trust Chairman, Adesh Bandekar had said, "We are providing sanitisers to all the devotees in the temple and where they stand in a queue holding the railings, are being cleaned in every 30 minutes."

The number of positive coronavirus cases in the country climbed to 109, including foreign nationals, even as the Central and state governments ramped up efforts to fight the highly contagious disease.

Worst-hit country after China remains Italy which saw the biggest increase with more than 415 fresh deaths and 11,000 new cases. The latest death toll in Italy stood at 1,441 with 21,157 total cases.

Begona Gomez, the wife of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, was tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday, Sputnik reported citing Spanish news agency Europa Press. The condition of both the Prime Minister and his wife are assessed as "good".

Both are now in their residence, following the health authorities' advice Spain reported over 2000 new cases of coronavirus raising its total to 6,250, the second-highest number in Europe after Italy, with the death toll at 183. Iran has recorded 6724 fatalities due to the novel virus.

The Central and Western Railway ordered withdrawal of blankets and curtains from AC coaches as they are not washed every day.

"As per the extant instructions, curtains and blankets provided in AC coaches are not washed (after) every trip.

In order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, blankets and curtains will be immediately withdrawn from service till further orders.

India-Bangladesh passenger train services between Kolkata and cities in the neighbouring country will remain suspended from March 15 to April 15 or till further orders. Union AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik said his ministry has not claimed that Ayurveda, Unani and Homeopathy have cures for novel coronavirus as these lines of treatment are yet to be scientifically validated.

Over 450 Indians, including students, stranded in coronavirus-hit Iran and Italy were brought back by two flights on Sunday and were quarantined at separate facilities, according to officials.