All international passengers entering India will be screened at airports for the novel coronavirus outbreak (Covid-19), the government announced on Wednesday.
The decision came on the day India reported a sharp rise in infections — from six on Tuesday to 29 on Wednesday. Three of them — all in Kerala — have recovered.
“There have been cases in the past — like that of a group of Italian tourists coming to India on February 21, when Italy was not in the list of countries that were being screened at our airports,” Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said.
“At a high-level meeting that I held with various stakeholders (on Wednesday), it was decided to extend the universal screening to all international flights, and not just 12 countries,” he added.
The decision effectively means all passengers entering the country via seaports will also be screened.
So far, India was screening passengers from 12 countries. Italy, one of the hot spots of the disease outside China, where the virus surfaced at the end of 2019, was added to the list on Monday.
Altogether 16 Italian tourists and their Indian driver in Rajasthan have been tested positive for the virus.
India began the screening process on January 17 with just China and Hong Kong on the list, which was subsequently revised on several occasions.
New countries were added with the global spread of the virus.
“The major ones [airports] include Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad, which will be our main focus. Delhi gets about 25,000 passengers each day, and we have been screening 5,000-6,000; Mumbai airport gets about 15-16,000 passengers and we already have been screening 4,000-6,000 daily...The Centre is providing additional resources [to states], including trained manpower, based on the requests we get,” a senior health ministry official said.
So far, India has screened 589,000 passengers across 21 airports, and 15,000 passengers at 12 major and 65 minor seaports. At least one million people have been tested in five states — Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim — that have borders with Nepal.
As many as 27,000 passengers are under community surveillance at present after the screening process at these entry points.
At the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in Delhi, special counters for medical examination of international passengers and their immigration clearance were set up on Wednesday.
Those who have visited 12 high-risk countries already on the screening list — China, South Korea, Japan, Iran, Italy, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Nepal and Indonesia —are examined as they exit the 15 designated aerobridges.
From Thursday, others will be checked in the pre-immigration area of the Delhi airport.
“Close to the aerobridge, three dedicated counters have been set up to scan passengers arriving from these 12 countries...even those who test negative are given immigration clearance only by 10 dedicated immigration counters. If anyone tests positive for the symptoms of coronavirus, they are directly sent to designated hospitals,” an official of the airport said on the condition of anonymity.
Passengers with symptoms are isolated and taken either to the hospital run by the Airport Health Organisation or to two other designated hospitals — Safdarjung and RML.
Asymptomatic passengers are allowed to go home after filling a detailed declaration form that will help the government track them.
For passengers arriving from other countries, three dedicated counters for medical check-up in the pre-immigration area have been set up.
All these passengers will be checked by the staff of APHO, a wing of the Union health ministry.
An airport official said unless the immigration form of these passengers is stamped by doctors who are examining them, they will not be given clearance. “This is a practice to ensure that no passenger can escape unexamined,” this official said on the condition of anonymity.
The airport operator, Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), has placed hoardings at many places in the immigration area to educate the passengers about the disease. Notices with a helpline number (011-23978046) have also been put up.
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