9K air passengers screened for coronavirus

New Delhi: Over 9,000 passengers from 43 flights have been screened at various international airports in India in the wake of outbreak of Coronavirus (nCoV) in the City in China. No case of nCoV has been detected so far here in India.

"As of January 21, a total of 43 flights and 9,156 passengers have been screened for novel Coronavirus illness. Till now, no case has been detected through these screening efforts. We are on alert and our preparedness is sturdy," said Preeti Sudan, Secretary, Health & Family Welfare. The nCoV was first reported in China and 9 persons have lost thier lives. She also stated that passengers travelling from China are being requested to report to the nearest public health facility in case they feel any symptoms.

As part of the measures taken by the Ministries of Health & Family Welfare, and Civil Aviation, a travel advisory has been issued and posted on the Health Ministry''s website and Twitter handle for wider circulation. Earlier on Tuesday the Ministry of Civil Aviation had extended the screening of passengers coming in from China to four more airports -- Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Cochin -- to combat the threat of nCoV. The screening has been underway at Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata airports. The precaution is being taken in view of the recent outbreak of pneumonia caused by novel coronavirus in Wuhan city in Hubei province of China.

The Ministry had said that thermal screening of passengers would be undertaken at airports. Provision of space at the pre-immigration area with logistics to install thermal cameras would be made at these airports and airlines staff would bring the passengers to the health counters before immigration check. "In order to facilitate early isolation, in-flight announcements will be made by the airlines (which are directly coming from any airport in China, including Hong Kong) requesting passengers with history of fever and cough and history of travel to Wuhan City in last 14 days to self-declare at port of arrival or to state health authorities," it said.