The Union Ministry of Shipping in India ordered all States to place 204 minor and 12 major ports in quarantine mode to screen for the novel coronavirus on ships docking from China, following the shipping industry’s measures on providing the utmost safety to seafarers and people working there.
The directive was published by Abhishek Chandra, Director (Sagarmala), Ministry of Shipping, and alerts that the spread of the virus could have an ‘adverse’ impact on India’s maritime economy, as the Hindu reports.
India will place a screening, detention and quarantine system including at the 65 EXIM cargo ports for disembarking seafarer and cruise passengers, the Union Ministry warned. In addition to the quarantine facilities, the ports should place an isolation ward in their in-house hospitals. The collection of throat swab will be conducted by district authority, while the port management will put in place a standard operating procedure for disease surveillance for the vessel and crew.
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Moreover, India notes that the ports should obtain a self-declaration from the arriving crew and passengers, to ensure the health conditions of each one.
For the time being, the majority of non-major ports are in the administrative control, while the Ministry has appointed a nodal officer to coordinate with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on the issue.
Concluding, on January 17 the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare advised State Governments that despite the fact that the global spread of the virus remains ‘low’, the Indian government was using this as an opportunity to review their preparedness and identify core capacities in the areas of surveillance, laboratory support and infection prevention.
To stay up-to-date with the incidents positively confirmed for coronavirus, the Johns Hopkins University provides a live map with the numbers of confirmed infections and presents the overall picture of the situation on an everyday basis.
