Certain airports in Canada will try to identify people travelling from Wuhan in central China who may have flu-like symptoms. This follows US officials who reported that three American airports will screen passengers arriving from central China for a new virus that has prompted worries about an international outbreak. On Monday, the urgency was magnified when it was determined that the disease is transmitted from human to human
Officials from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say they will begin taking temperatures and asking about symptoms of passengers at New York City’s Kennedy airport and the Los Angeles and San Francisco airports.
The Public Health Agency of Canada says additional measures will include messaging on arrivals screens at the Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver international airports reminding travellers from Wuhan to inform a border service officer if they are experiencing flu-like symptoms.
There will also be an additional health screening question added to electronic kiosks.
The agency notes the overall risk to Canadians is low, there are no direct flights from Wuhan to Canada and the volume of travellers arriving indirectly from the city is low.
Canada’s Chief Medical officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said additional signage will be in place in the coming days at airports in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. There will also be additional screening questions at electronic kiosks at customs asking people if they have travelled to areas where coronavirus is and if they have flu like symptoms.
“The Chinese lunar year is coming so out of abundance precaution that’s why we are putting out additional information for travellers,” Tam said.
Many of the initial cases of the coronavirus were linked to a seafood market in Wuhan, which was closed as authorities investigated.
At least a half-dozen countries in Asia have started screening incoming airline passengers from central China.
The list includes Thailand and Japan, which both have reported cases of the disease in people who had come from Wuhan. Travel is unusually heavy right now as people take trips to and from China to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
CHINA
The head of a Chinese government expert team said Monday that human-to-human transmission has been confirmed in the new coronavirus, a development that raises the possibility that it could spread more quickly and widely.
Team leader Zhong Nanshan, a respiratory expert, said two people in Guangdong province in southern China caught the virus from family members, state media said. Some medical workers have also tested positive for the virus, the English-language China Daily newspaper reported.
The late-night announcement capped a day in which authorities announced a sharp uptick in the number of confirmed cases to more than 200, and China’s leader called on the government to take every possible step to combat the outbreak.
In Geneva, the World Health Organization announced it would convene an Emergency Committee meeting on Wednesday to determine whether the outbreak warrants being declared a global health crisis. Such declarations are typically made for epidemics of severe diseases that threaten to cross borders and require an internationally co-ordinated response.
The spread of the viral pneumonia comes as the country enters its busiest travel period, when millions board trains and planes for the Lunar New Year holidays.