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Amid rising cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the Indian navy has decided to defer its biggest maritime exercise - Milan 2020 for an indefinite period, local media reported on Tuesday.
The naval exercise involving many countries was scheduled to take place off the Visakhapatnam coast on March 19-28.
"The exercise is being postponed due to the coronavirus scare. The new dates have not been finalised yet," local media quoted navy officials as saying.
The decision to put off the drill was taken after several navies indicated their inability to take part in the exercise because of COVID-19 cases being detected in different parts of the world.
Around 40 countries were supposed to take part in the exercise. So far no new date has been announced for the exercise.
Milan began in 1995 in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
On Monday India reported three new cases of COVID-19. One positive case has been detected in New Delhi, who came to India in Vienna-Delhi. The second case was detected in Telangana and has a travel history from Dubai. The third case, a visiting Italian tourist was also tested positive for coronavirus in Jaipur (Rajasthan).
India reported three cases from the southern state of Kerala. However, the patients showed signs of improvement and were discharged from the hospital after recovery.
Indian Health Minister Harsh Vardhan advised people to avoid non-essential travel to Iran, Italy, South Korea and Singapore.
India's Health Ministry has launched a 24x7 helpline to provide support to people regarding queries on novel coronavirus. The ministry is also circulating the precautionary measures recommended by the WHO for the prevention of COVID-19 in India. E
