An unprecedented shutdown commenced across the country on Sunday morning on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal for a 'Janata curfew' to help check the spread of coronavirus.

While doctors, nurses, public health professionals and other frontline workers struggle to contain the spread of the coronavirus outbreak in India, complicating their efforts are fake, unverified forwards on WhatsApp. The latest misinformation doing the rounds claims that the ‘Janata Curfew’, a self-imposed 14-hour stay-at-home announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, would stop the virus spread in one day. Specifically, the fake news wrongly claims that the life of the coronavirus is “only 12 hours” at one place and thus, with a 14-hour curfew in place on Sunday, March 22, India would emerge ‘virus-free’. 

Shimla: A 64-year-old woman who tested positive for coronavirus in Himachal Pradesh's Kangra district was on Saturday booked for allegedly flouting norms and spreading the disease, police said.

Novel coronavirus cases in India rose to 283 on Saturday after 60 fresh cases were reported in various parts of the country, the Union Health Ministry said.

The Delhi government on Saturday said it had not imposed a lockdown for now, but would have to do if the need arises in wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh, who had attended a party with Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor days before she tested positive for coronavirus, tested negative for COVID-19 on Saturday, the King George Medical University here said.

Railways issued an advisory on Saturday relaxing refund rules for passengers who had booked tickets to travel between March 21 and April 15 in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak in the country to avoid crowding on trains and encourage social distancing.

A magnitude-4 earthquake struck parts of Odisha on Saturday, officials said. No loss of life or property has been reported so far in the quake that hits Malkangiri and adjoining areas, they said.