Chennai: If you arrive in Kerala with a really bad case of the sniffles, you’ll probably get quarantined till they know you don’t have Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
If you land in Chennai from the UAE with just about any ailment, you’ll probably get to leave the airport just a little bit sooner. A day after Saudi Arabia’s health ministry suspected that the deadly MERS coronavirus was spreading from camels to humans, Kerala’s health machinery stepped up the screening of passengers arriving from the Middle East, reportedly sending samples from a 57-year-old woman to Karnataka for testing.
However, since there has been no alert or advisory from the Health Ministry to the Airports Authority of India (AAI), no preventive screening steps are being taken at the city airport.
“When there is such a directive from the Health Ministry we will cooperate immediately,” said an AAI spokesperson. There are at least 140 flights that connect Riyadh to Chennai through one destination or another — but at least 10 flights that arrive here on a daily basis from West Asia.
13/05/14 New Indian Express
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If you land in Chennai from the UAE with just about any ailment, you’ll probably get to leave the airport just a little bit sooner. A day after Saudi Arabia’s health ministry suspected that the deadly MERS coronavirus was spreading from camels to humans, Kerala’s health machinery stepped up the screening of passengers arriving from the Middle East, reportedly sending samples from a 57-year-old woman to Karnataka for testing.
However, since there has been no alert or advisory from the Health Ministry to the Airports Authority of India (AAI), no preventive screening steps are being taken at the city airport.
“When there is such a directive from the Health Ministry we will cooperate immediately,” said an AAI spokesperson. There are at least 140 flights that connect Riyadh to Chennai through one destination or another — but at least 10 flights that arrive here on a daily basis from West Asia.
13/05/14 New Indian Express
