From Tuesday 21 Jan 2020 India expanded thermal screening of passengers arriving from China and Hong Kong to seven airports for preventing any entry of Novel Corona Virus Disease (nCoV) in the country.Advisors from National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC),Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), the Ministry of Civil Aviation directed for all logistics support and arrangements to be made immediately with regard to screening of passengers arriving in India from China and Hong Kong at the identified airports i.e. Hyderabad ,Chennai, Bengaluru and Cochin along with three airports at Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai identified earlier.
Ministry of Civil Aviation has called for immediate action plan and strict adherence by identified airports and all concerned airlines.
“In order to facilitate early isolation, in-flight announcements are being made by the airlines (which are coming directly from any airport in China including Hong Kong) requesting passengers with history of cough and fever and history of travel to Wuhan City in last 14 days to self-declare at port of arrival or to State Health Authorities," Ministry of Civil Aviation said in an official statement.
“All passengers and crew who are healthy or normal should be allowed to continue their onward journey. If the ill passenger or crew team is confirmed as a probable case of Wuhan Corona Virus, public health authorities should be notified about the contacts using the Locator Form of the Passenger," the official statement said.
The passengers who have visited the affected city but they do not have any symptoms on arrival, but develop above mentioned symptoms within 28 days of arrival in India, the government has said that they need to visit nearest hospital facility and report to the State or District Health Authorities and concerned Airport Health Officer.
Precautions to be taken:
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has explained that Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). The apex health agency has said that the standard recommendations to prevent infection spread include regular covering mouth and nose and hand washing when coughing and sneezing, thoroughly cooking meat and eggs. Avoid close contact with the person showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing. According to reports the death toll in China due to virus has risen from four to six.