Ten lakh screened at open borders with Nepal, Bhutan for coronavirus: Javadekar

The government is proactively engaged in tackling the situation related to coronavirus and 10 lakh people have been screened at India's open borders with Nepal and Bhutan in the last one month, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Wednesday.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was monitoring the situation and the Cabinet Secretary was holding meetings with concerned officials every day.

Javadekar said that coronavirus issue was discussed after the cabinet meeting and this has been the practice in the last four cabinet meetings.

"The government is proactively engaged to tackle the situation. The Prime Minister himself is monitoring the situation," he said.

Javadekar said that Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan was also keeping a close eye on the situation.

"We have started screening at 21 airports and six lakh passengers have been screened. The open borders along Nepal and Bhutan, in the last one month more than 10 lakh have been screened. And border area towns are also being screened. There was only one virology lab in Pune. We have set up 15 more and 19 are going to be established shortly," he said.

He added that two batches of Indians have come from Wuhan, the epicentre of coronavirus spread, people have also been brought from the ship docked off the coast of Japan.

"We brought them safely here. We have issued necessary advisories to guide Indian passengers and those travelling from abroad. For a certain period from many countries the visa on arrival has been suspended," the Union Minister said.

Javadekar said the main job was to create awareness among the society and all sections need to take precautions which are simple but important.