NEW DELHI, 19 March 2020, TON: The Indian Centre announced on Thursday that no international flights will land in India from 22 March to 31 March 2020.

“No scheduled international commercial airliner shall be allowed to land in India from March 22, 2020 for one week. The state government shall issue appropriate directions so that all citizens above 65 (other than for medical assistance) except for public representative/government servants/medical professionals are advised to remain at home,” the government statement said.

The government has asked all senior citizens above 65 and all children below 10 to stay inside the home as a precautionary measure against the novel coronavirus, which has claimed four lives in India.”Similarly all children below 10 should be advised to stay at home and not to venture out,” it said.

Railways and civil aviation have also been asked to suspend all concessional travel except for students, patients and divyang category. The Centre has requested states to enforce Work From Home for the private sector.

The new measures indicate that India has stepped up its fight against the novel coronavirus, also known as Covid-19, which has claimed over 9,000 lives across the world. Around 2 lakh people have been affected by the disease since its outbreak in December last year.

As per Ministry of Health Affairs latest numbers, India has registered over 170 positive cases of noval coronavirus, which includes 149 active cases, 19 cured patients, four deaths and oen migrated.