Indian volunteers of Trauma and Emergency Care Center conduct an awareness and preparedness session by using face masks and keeping a clean environment against the COVID-19 outbreak, in Bangalore, India, March 5, 2020. (Stringer/Xinhua)
India's southwestern state of Karnataka has launched "Namaste over Handshake" campaign that encourages people to greet with folded hands without touching each other to counter the spread of COVID-19.
The number of confirmed cases in India has risen to 60.
MUMBAI, March 12 (Xinhua) -- In a bid to protect the public at large from COVID-19 infections, India's southwestern state of Karnataka has launched "Namaste over Handshake" campaign to counter the spread of the disease.
Namaste or Namaskar is a customary Indian way to greet people with folded hands without touching each other. The practice is found in the Indian subcontinent as also among the Indian diaspora across the world.
The state government has launched a social media campaign, that not only encourages people to greet in the traditional Indian style but also includes health advice on how to protect from the infection by adopting hygiene practices such as regularly washing hands to prevent the spread of the disease, the state health department official said.
Speaking to the media, the state medical health education minister K. Sudhakar said, that we had been working on this idea while neighbouring state Kerala has already done it.
As per the latest update by the Indian government released Wednesday afternoon, there are 60 positive cases of coronavirus in the country including the three cases from southern state of Kerala discharged earlier.
Since the last update on Tuesday, 10 new cases have been reported of which eight are from Kerala while one each are from the northern state of Rajasthan and Delhi.■
