Health Minister inspects corona preparedness at airport

A 100-member team of doctors has been made available at the airport to conduct thermal screening and new equipment including air sanitizers and thermal screening equipment have also been installed.

The minister said that as the Government of India has stated that there are about 30 confirmed cases of coronavirus across the country, the State Health Department is working along with the Airport Authority of India officials to intensify the screening of the passengers coming from other countries at the Chennai International Airport.

“In order to strengthen the screening of passengers, the State Health Department has taken permission to deploy the doctors, nurses and para-medical staff from the State Health Department at the Chennai International Airport. There are about 52-57 flights arriving with about 8,500 passengers coming every day. All passengers from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Nepal, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Iran and Italy are screened universally through thermal screening,” said health ministerC Vijaya Baskar.

The examination room, isolation room and dedicated ambulances are available at the airport for the suspected cases. Till now 54 samples have been taken from the passengers and sent for testing at King Institute of Preventive Medicine and National Institute of Virology and all the cases have resulted negative.

More than 1,00,111 passengers have been screened at the airports of Chennai, Tiruchy, Madurai, and Coimbatore, of which 1,241 passengers are under home quarantine for 28 days in Tamil Nadu.

The State Health Department has also initiated 24-hour Helpline numbers- 044-29510400 or 044-29510500, and mobile numbers -94443 40496 or 87544 48477 apart from the regular medical helpline 104.

“A total of about 300 calls are received at the helpline numbers with common queries on preventive measures and symptoms. A large number of callers also ask if they can travel to other countries and what is the risk involved,” said Public Health DirectorDr K Kolandaisamy.

Meet to reduce fears

Meanwhile, Vellore Collector A Shanmuga Sundaram allayed public fear over the coronavirus epidemic by stating that till most of the people who tested positive for the virus had come from abroad.

Notifying the public of all the precautionary measure including regular hand washing and refraining from attending public gatherings, the Collector advised medical personnel to be fully updated on the symptoms and treatment of the disease to take action on a war footing.

Calling officials to create awareness among school and college students, he suggested that educational institutions which had a large number of other state and foreign students should be vigilant to ensure that such students do not travel to the disease affected areas till the disease was on the wane.

He also suggested hospitals and shops to stock enough masks to prevent last minute unavailability. Those present at the meeting included Joint Director (health) Dr I Yasmin and Vellore Government Medical College Hospitaldean Dr R Selvi.