Coronavirus: Passengers screened at airports; will India be affected?

Countries around the world are getting ready to tackle the Coronavirus (CoV), which is known to cause illnesses from common cold to more severe ones such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).

India is also getting ready to ensure the deadly virus doesn’t cause damage and therefore, passengers from China disembarking at airports in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata will be screened through thermal scanners, the Union Ministry of health and family welfare said.

Likewise, the Ministry has also advised Indians, especially ones that are sick, to not visit China, in particular, Wuhan. The Ministry has also advised fit Indian travellers in China to avoid close contact with people who are unwell; avoid contact with live animals; avoid consumption of raw/undercooked meat and avoid travelling to farms and areas where live animals are spotted in abundance. The advisory mostly borrows from the regulations set by the World Health Organisation.

However, a new report in Livemint throws light on how well India is equipped to deal with the situation with a health expert saying that India is not well-equipped to identify disease-carrying people at its ports of entry.

“In India, we are not well-equipped to identify disease-carrying people at our ports of entry. Moreover, it will not be easy to diagnose coronavirus as the symptoms resemble ordinary cold, cough or respiratory diseases," Girish Kumar Mahajan, a New Delhi-based public health expert, was quoted as saying.