Out of over 6,700 inbound passengers, 75 test positive for COVID-19: Chinese custom officials

A total of 75 inbound passengers in China have tested positive for the coronavirus out of the 6,700 travellers who showed possible symptoms of the deadly disease, Chinese custom officials said on Wednesday as the new cases added more pressure on the country's overstretched health sector.

By the end of Tuesday, 2,981 people died of the virus and a total of 80,270 confirmed cases of the virus were reported in China, National Health Commission (NHC) reported on Wednesday.

As of Tuesday, the country's customs have found 6,728 symptomatic passengers arriving from other countries, with 779 suspected cases and 75 confirmed cases, China's General Administration of Customs (CGAC) said.

All the cases have been handed over to the health departments, the CGAC was quoted as saying by the state-run China Daily.

It said the customs across the country found 227 passengers with the symptoms entering the country on Tuesday.

Five of them tested positive after the screening, including four in Shanghai and one in Beijing, the administration said in a release.

As the number of new confirmed cases continue to rise internationally, the risk of infections from abroad is also rising, making curbing the spread of the epidemic through ports a top priority, CGAC said.

Since the outbreak, the customs has launched a health declaration system to check and monitor the body temperature of all passengers entering the country and conduct medical inspections.

China has also announced elaborate measures to those returning from various countries which included a two-week long quarantine at designated places in case of fever or strict home quarantine for people without any symptoms.

Passengers who show symptoms, come from affected countries or regions, or have been in contact with confirmed or suspected patients would go through medical testing. Confirmed patients would be transported to hospitals and suspected cases would be quarantined, it said.

The CGAC said that in response to the increasing import risk of the epidemic, the customs have closely tracked the development of epidemics overseas.