21 Indian airports screening passengers for Coronavirus

The Union Health Ministry on Wednesday held a meeting with the health secretaries of the states, and informed that 21 airports are now screening passengers for the novel coronavirus infection.

New Delhi: As many as 21 airports across India have started screening of passengers for the novel Coronavirus, which has claimed at least 132 lives in neighbouring China.

Officials in the Health Ministry said that the list of airports for screening passengers for symptoms of Coronavirus has now been increased to 21.

Airports like Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kochi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Kolkata, Coimbatore, Guwahati, Gaya, Bagdogra, Jaipur, Lucknow, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirapalli, Varanasi, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar and Goa have started the screening facility for passengers.

Meanwhile, Sanjeeva Kumar, special secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare reviewed the situation with health secretaries of the states bordering Nepal.

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Health Secretaries of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim had a video conference with the Union Health Secretary and briefed the Ministry about the steps taken by their states in dealing with the infection.

Health secretary Kumar said that states need to take pro-active preventive measures by creating awareness among the people through local media.

He said that adequate in-flight announcements need to be made to make passengers aware about the symptoms and equipping them to "Help you to help us."

He assured states of all support from the ministry, including orientation of medical personnel/staff and other agencies through regular video-conferencing, the statement said.

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