India to screen passengers flying from Kathmandu for coronavirus

India recently started screening passengers from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, Singapore and Japan for possible exposure to the coronavirus. India to screen passengers flying from Kathmandu for coronavirus

Passengers walk past a thermal scanner installed at the Tribhuvan International Airport following the global coronavirus outbreak. Kiran Panday/TKP

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Suresh Raj Neupane

Published at : February 23, 2020

Updated at : March 12, 2020 20:19

New Delhi

Indian officials will screen passengers flying to India from Kathmandu for coronavirus in their bid to minimise the risk of an outbreak, the Ministry of Health said in a statement on Saturday.

The decision follows a high-level meeting, chaired by the cabinet secretary, took stock of the situation in the wake of the global outbreak. “After a detailed review, in addition to the universal screening as per earlier advisories, universal screening at airports is now being planned for flights from Kathmandu, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia,” said the statement.

India recently started screening passengers from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, Singapore and Japan at 21 designated airports for possible exposure to the coronavirus. The meeting on Saturday also advised Indian citizens to avoid all non-essential travel to Singapore.

Various airline companies fly to New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Varanasi from Kathmandu. Indian authorities have also been screening people crossing major border points along the Nepal-India border for the last one month.

Various authorities in India had been demanding that passengers from Nepal also be screened as the country shares a border with China, from where the outbreak started. It is said that the government took the decision as the infection rates doubled in South Korea recently.

According to the ministry, a total of 397,152 air passengers and 9,695 passengers from the sea route have been screened as of Saturday. More than 21,805 are under surveillance.

Three people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in India so far. They were quarantined in Kerala for 10 days.