Over 9000 passengers from 43 flights screened for novel coronavirus, no cases found: Health Ministry

A total of 9,156 passengers from 43 flights were screened for novel coronavirus till Tuesday at the seven identified airports including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday. Till now, no cases have been detected through these screening efforts, Health Secretary Preeti Sudan said.

Sudan further said the Indian Embassy in China has been regularly providing the health ministry with updates on the status of the infected cases in that country. "9156 passengers from 43 flights screened for novel Coronavirus (nCoV).

No case of nCoV has been detected," the health ministry tweeted. Sudan said the Embassy has informed that a total of 440 cases of pneumonia with novel coronavirus were confirmed in China and nine people have died till Wednesday.

"Cases have been reported in 14 provinces (including Taiwan) and municiplalities as well," the health secretary told PTI.