Coronavirus: Air passengers from Thailand, Singapore to be screened

Passengers arriving from Thailand and Singapore will be screened at airports in addition to those coming from China and Hong Kong for possible exposure to novel coronavirus (nCoV), the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday.

The decision was taken at a high-level review meeting held by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba here on the preparedness to deal with the virus amid mounting global concern over increasing number of cases in China and several other countries.

"Apart from passengers coming from China and Hong Kong, passengers coming on flights from Singapore and Thailand shall also be universally screened at the airports, henceforth," the ministry said.

The secretaries of Health, Civil Aviation, Textiles and Pharmaceutical ministries among others attended the meeting. The cabinet secretary has held five review meetings so far.

As of Saturday, a total of 52,332 passengers from 326 flights have been screened for the nCoV infection symptoms.

"A total of 97 symptomatic travellers picked up by the IDSP have been referred to the isolation facilities. 98 samples have been tested, of which 97 have been found to be negative. The earlier positive case found in Kerala is being monitored and is stable," the Health Ministry said.

India has reported a positive case of nCoV from Kerala. A female medical student of a university in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, has tested positive for the virus that has claimed over 250 lives in China.

The Union Health secretary also held a video-conference to review the process of screening passengers from different countries.

As many as 324 Indians, evacuated from Wuhan, on Saturday reached here on board Air India's jumbo B747 aircraft and were admitted to two quarantine facilities set up by the Army and the ITBP, though none of them have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, officials said.