As new coronavirus spreads, India steps up surveillanceGoI expands thermal screening of passengers from China to 7 airports

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 21

As the novel coronavirus spreads across China with cases being reported even from neighbouring countries today, India intensified surveillance expanding thermal screening of passengers arriving from China and Hong Kong to seven airports.

The thermal scanning will now be done at international airports of Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Cochin along with Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, which were identified earlier. The Ministry of Civil Aviation today directed logistics support and arrangements to be made at all above airports to enhance surveillance.

The move comes on a day when China reported six deaths from the virus and 295 cases as the disease spread from Wuhan City to Beijing, Shanghai and southern Guondong province.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for the organisation’s emergency committee meeting tomorrow to review whether the current outbreak in China needed to be designated as the public health emergency of international concern.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry today confirmed the presence of its officials there to deal with the fatal epidemic.

India meanwhile remained on alert with the Ministry of Health and National Centre for Disease Control issuing advisories to states to step up disease control and surveillance efforts.

The Civil Aviation Ministry here has called for immediate implementation of the action plan and strict adherence by identified airports and all airlines concerned to surveillance protocols.

To facilitate early isolation, airlines directly coming from any airport in China and Hong Kong have been instructed to make in-flight announcements asking passengers with history of fever and cough and history of travel to Wuhan City in the past 14 days to self-declare the condition at the port of arrival or to state health authorities.