Kolkata airport director Kaushik Bhattacharjee on Saturday said that they are strictly adhering all the advisories issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Directorate General of Civil Aviation as a preventive measure against the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
"We are meticulously implementing all the advisories frequently issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Directorate General of Civil Aviation," Bhattacharjee told ANI.
"Presently, all international arriving passengers are being health screened by a team of doctors and Para-medics belonging to the airport health organisation that is stationed at the airport and working 24/7 to screen the passengers through thermal imaging process," he added.
He also said that all the international arriving passengers are made to fill a self-declaration by the central government.
"Airlines have to make an in-house announcement about the latest advisories and distribute the self-declaration form (report) to all passengers. Those forms are being handed over to the health team and another to immigration authorities," Bhattacharjee said.
Commenting on the procedure in case a suspected coronavirus patient is found, he said: "Such passengers after the health screening are handed over to the state health team for isolation to one of the designated state government hospitals."
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"There is no such mandatory health advisory for domestic passengers. However, the state government has taken an initiative and requested our assistance to facilitate the screening of domestic passengers," he added.
He further said that "more than 82,000 international arriving passengers have been screen through the thermal imaging and around 12 or 13 have sent to the state hospital."
"Many international flights have been cancelled. Before the outbreak, we had about 35 daily international flights. Now it has come down to an average of 17 flights," he added.
As of now, India has reported over 300 positive cases of coronavirus with four deaths across the country.