India's COVID-19 toll at 28; Maharashtra BJP & Cong bigwigs discuss 'Who is Coronavirus?'

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country on Wednesday shot up to 28. Amidst the threat of the deadly virus, however, two senior leaders from Congress and BJP were busy calling each other's party "Coronavirus" on Wednesday. 

'BJP is more obtuse than coronavirus'

Senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ashok Chavan while responding to a question on alleged horse-trading efforts by BJP in Madhya Pradesh said, "Instead of calling the party's efforts as operation Lotus, it should be called coronavirus. BJP is more obtuse than coronavirus."

Reacting to Ashok Chavan's statement, senior BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar said, "Congress is itself like coronavirus. Ashok Chavan is a senior leader of Congress and he should not say such things. But Congress starts with the letter 'C' and so does coronavirus. BJP starts with 'B', so BJP has nothing to do with coronavirus."

On Monday, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh had alleged that BJP leaders Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Narottam Mishra were offering bribes of Rs 25-35 crore to Congress MLAs in Madhya Pradesh in order to bring down the Congress government in the state.

Reacting to the allegations by Congress which claimed that the BJP is trying to poach 8 of its MLAs from Madhya Pradesh, former CM and senior BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that there is infighting within the Congress and they are blaming the BJP for no reason. The former CM asserted that the BJP does not believe in poaching and is not involved in such practices.

16 Italian nationals in India test positive

The number of coronavirus cases in India has now shot up to 28, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday announced. He said that out of 21 Italian nationals, 16 of them have been found positive for coronavirus. They have been sent to Indo-Tibetan Border Police's (ITBP) quarantine facility in Chhawla.

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Besides, six family members of the Delhi man who was infected with coronavirus have also been tested positive for the virus that has killed more than 3,000 people globally so far. "On conducting contact tracing of the person tested positive in Delhi, we came to know that he infected 6 members of his family who are in Agra. All 6 members tested positive for coronavirus," Vardhan said.

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To control the spread of the deadly virus in the country, the Centre has now started universal screening of all passengers from incoming international flights at airports. Global deaths due to coronavirus outbreak rose above 3,000 with the new count in China mainland rising to 2,912. The deadly virus, that originated in China late last year, continues to spread around the world and has infected more than 80,000 people.

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(With agency inputs)