Five more people in Kerala, including three who had returned from Italy last month, have tested positive for coronvirus, the state’s health minister K K Shailaja informed on Sunday.

All five are now in isolation wards in Pathnamthitta. “The situation is under control. The three of them had returned to Kochi from Italy via Doha,” Officials said

With this, the total number of infected cases in India has now gone up to 39.

In Italy, the death toll from coronavirus rose to 233 on Saturday while the number of infections climbed to 5,883. It has recorded the most deaths outside China and is the third-most coronavirus infected after China and South Korea.

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, Agra Mayor Naveen Jain has asked the Centre to close the iconic Taj Mahal for the time being.

In a letter to the Union Tourism Minister, Jain said: “If the monuments remained closed, the inflow of tourists to Agra could be checked to prevent people here from falling victim to the virus. From October to March end is the tourist season when lakhs of tourists visit the city.

“The people here were scared of all the foreigners and looked at them with suspicion. This situation could turn nasty and tarnish India’s image internationally,” he said.

The Telangana government has informed that one of the 25 colleagues of the person who was found positive for coronavirus, was found to be symptomatic and was admitted at RGICD.

“A detailed investigation was done to trace the contacts of one person who was found novel coronavirus positive in Telangana and it has been found that at his workplace in Bengaluru, 25 colleagues have been contacted and one is found to be symptomatic and admitted at RGICD,” read a government statement.

Meanwhile, two more people succumbed to the novel coronavirus in Washington state, officials said on Saturday, bringing the nationwide toll to 19, while the number of confirmed cases in New York rose to 89. Governor Andrew Cuomo has declared emergency.