(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) – Sri Lanka has taken preemptive measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the island through infected visitors and decided to install elevated body temperature screening machines at country’s international airports.
The decision was reached at a meeting of officials of the Civil Aviation Authority, SriLankan Airlines, Sri Lanka Air Force, Police, Customs, and Immigration & Emigration Department.
The body temperature screening machines will automatically monitor the body temperature of the passengers arriving in the country and alert the authorities. Arrangements have been made to send the possibly infected persons to the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) at Mulleriyawa immediately.
Initial symptoms of the new coronavirus include fever, cough, tightness of the chest and shortness of breath.
Chinese authorities have urged people to stop travelling in and out of Wuhan, the city at the center of the new virus outbreak that has killed 17 people, BBC reported. Earlier this week, China confirmed that human-to-human transmission of the virus had taken place.
The Wuhan coronavirus that has infected more than 300 people has been detected in the United States for the first time in the Washington state, a US authorities have confirmed Tuesday.
The U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) says a number of countries, including the United States, are actively screening incoming travelers from Wuhan and exported cases have been confirmed in Thailand, Japan and Korea.
