Serbia introduces airport screening for new coronavirus

Serbia will screen passengers arriving at Belgrade's Nikola Tesla airport using a thermal camera and is ready to quarantine anyone suspected of carrying the new coronavirus, health minister Zlatibor Loncar said on Wednesday. No cases have yet been recorded in Serbia of the virus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan and causes a severe respiratory infection that can pass between humans.

Thousands of Chinese nationals live and work in the Balkan country and more than 100,000 Chinese tourists visited in 2019. "Persons with elevated body temperature would be quarantined and transferred to the Clinic for Infectious Diseases for monitoring," Loncar told reporters.

He warned people to avoid traveling to affected areas but said Serbian authorities have secured all the equipment needed to combat a potential coronavirus outbreak.