A total of 18,161 international passengers have been screened in Karnataka in the wake of the H1N1 flu threat, a senior health department official said.
"In all, 18,161 international passengers have been screened so far at the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) and Mangalore airport which has international flights coming in from Middle East," Health Commissioner Shrinivasachari told PTI today.
While 16,800 passengers were screened at BIA, the rest were screened at Mangalore airport, he said.
Asserting that there has been no suspected H1N1 flu case, Shrinivasachari said "the state is well prepared in case we do get suspected cases as we already have a health centre in place at BIA, manned by 25 doctors and eight paramedicals who are on round the clock duty".
While 10 hospitals including three private ones have already been identified to treat suspected flu cases, "other hospitals have also been asked to be prepared to provide back-up facilities in case of emergency", he said.