Amid Coronavirus threat, Centre plans to begin screening for flights from Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia too

In the wake of Coronavirus outbreak, the Centre is now planning to start universal screening at airports for flights from Kathmandu (Nepal), Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia along with those from other countries, this decision was taken in a high-level meeting chaired by Union Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Saturday.

This universal screening will be in addition to those as per the earlier advisories.

Gauba chaired the high-level meeting to review the status, actions taken and preparedness of states and union territories, amid the scare caused by Novel Coronavirus outbreak.

According to a release by the PIB, Secretaries of Health and Family Welfare, Civil Aviation, Defence, Information and Broadcasting, DG AFMS and representatives from External Affairs, Home Affairs, Bureau of Immigration, ITBP and Army were also present in the meeting.

During the meeting, citizens have also been advised to avoid all non-essential travel to Singapore.

"As on date, 21,805 passengers have been brought under community surveillance. In addition, 3,97,152 flight passengers and 9,695 travellers at seaports have been screened," the release added.

Coronavirus first originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has since then killed more than 2,200 people in that country alone, while cases have been reported in several countries across the world, including India.