Pune: air travelers with travel history to 7 countries under

Passengers arrriving here by Dubai -Pune flights would be placed under quarantine at hospital if they have visited, after February 15, any of the seven "high- risk" countries which have seen major coronavirus outbreaks.

Eight Pune residents, including a couple who returned from Dubai, have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Passengers from seven high-risk countries will be straightway sent to quarantine irrespective of whether they have any symptoms, said divisional commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar.

A Spice Jet flight from Dubai is scheduled to land at the Pune airport on Friday and another on Saturday.

"As per the Union government's guidelines, if passengers on these flights have travel history to China, Italy, Iran, Republic of Korea, France, Spain and Germany after February 15, they will be kept under institutional quarantine (in hospital) in the city," said Mhaisekar.

"We are trying to obtain travel history post-February 15 of the passengers on these two flights," he added.

A "containment program" has been launched in three-km radius in four areas of the city where the patients who have tested positive for the virus live.

"We are conducting house-to-house surveys in these areas and screening people," said district collector Naval Kishore Ram.