First coronavirus case in Indian army as soldier tests positive

New Delhi: An Indian Army soldier has been placed in an isolation ward at a hospital in Ladakh after he tested for coronavirus, according to Indian media.

The soldier is a resident of Chuhot village in Leh and came in contact with his father who had already contracted the infection. His father had returned from a pilgrimage on February 27.

His sister, wife and two children are also quarantined in Sonam Nurboo Memorial (SNM) Hospital.

India has so far recorded 147 coronavirus positive cases – 122 of them are Indians and 25 foreigners.

More than 11,500 people were infected with the novel coronavirus globally, bringing the total number of confirmed cases above 179,000, the World Health Organisation said in its latest coronavirus situation report.

According to a US-government funded study, the novel coronavirus can survive on some surfaces for days or in the air for several hours.

Scientists found that the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease had similar levels of viability outside the body to its predecessor that caused SARS.

This means that other factors like greater transmission between people with no symptoms might be why the current pandemic is far greater than the SARS outbreak of 2002-2003.

The new paper was published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and carried out by scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), University of California, Los Angeles and Princeton.