43 flights, over 9000 passengers screened for novel coronavirus in India, no cases found: Health Secy

In this handout photograph taken and released by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) on January 21, 2020, a man (L) uses a thermographic camera to screen the head of people at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata, following the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's advisory to screen passengers arriving in India from China and Hong Kong regarding the novel coronavirus (nCoV) issue.

A total of 43 flights and 9,156 passengers were screened for novel coronavirus till Tuesday at the seven identified airports including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan said on Wednesday.

Till now, no cases have been detected through these screening efforts, she 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.

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

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