Andhra Pradesh State Election Commission on Sunday, March 15 announced the postponement of the local body elections in the state in view of the prevailing situation due to coronavirus outbreak.
State Election Commissioner Ramesh Kumar told the media that the elections were being postponed for six weeks.
Elections were to be held on March 21, March 23
The elections to rural local bodies and urban local bodies were scheduled to be held on March 21 and March 23 respectively. Polling for Panchayats was scheduled to be held in two phases on March 27 and 29.
He said the decision was taken in view of the precautionary measures being taken across the country to prevent the possible spread of coronavirus.
The commissioner said there was a possibility of the virus being spread through ballot papers to be used for the polling. He said a decision on the new dates would be taken after a review of the situation six weeks later.
COVID-19 confirmed cases mount to 107 in India
The ministry of health and family affairs on Sunday said that confirmed COVID-19 cases in India have risen to 107 so far. The data took into account cases compiled till 12 p.m. on Sunday.
A total of 31 persons have been confirmed for COVID-19 disease in the state of Maharashtra. Apart from Maharashtra, UP and Telangana are reflecting increased numbers of confirmed cases in the data provided by the Health Ministry.
At least 22 coronavirus cases have been reported from Kerala, including 3 recovered and discharged earlier. Haryana has 14 cases, and all the patients are foreign nationals.
Telangana confirmed three cases. According to the Health Ministry, one person has recovered and has been discharged from the hospital.
In UP, there are at least 12 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, of which one is foreign national, remaining 11 are Indians. A total of three persons have been discharged from the hospital. There is one confirmed case in Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh each.
While union territory of Ladakh reported 3 confirmed cases, Jammu and Kashmir showed 2 COVID-19 cases. Karnataka confirmed one case. The patient died from COVID-19 along with comorbidity condition.
According to the ministry, there are at least 90 Indian nationals and 17 foreigners who are confirmed COVID-19 cases. A total of two persons have died so far with one death in the national capital and one in Karnataka. Moreover, the data shows that so far 12,29,363 have been screened at the Airports across India.
