India has announced to take precautionary measures by screening all passengers arriving at its airports from Kathmandu from Monday.
A high-level meeting on COVID19 chaired by India’s cabinet secretary on Saturday announced to enforce universal screening of all incoming air passengers from Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Nepal, according to the Press Information Bureau of the Government of India.
The meeting was organized to review the status of COVID19, as well as actions taken and preparedness of states and union territories regarding the management of the virus.
“After a detailed review, universal screening at airports is now planned for flights from Kathmandu, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia,” the Indian Ministry of Health said in a statement.
India had recently started screening passengers coming from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Japan and South Korea as precautionary measures. Moreover, India has also advised its citizens to avoid non-essential travels to Singapore.
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 Indian government took the decision as the infection rates doubled in South Korea recently.
Three people have tested positive for the novel corornavirus in India so far. They were quarantined in Kerala for 10 days.