6 persons from Ebola-hit nations quarantined at Delhi airport

New Delhi, Aug 26: Six people including two women and a child who arrived at the Delhi airport here today from and around the Ebola-hit Liberia, were quarantined and taken for further tests.

The people have been taken to a designated hospital where they will be monitored for any symptoms for the virus and tests will be conducted, officials said.

Elaborate precautionary arrangements have been put in place at Delhi and Mumbai airports to screen passengers who are expected to come by various flights from and around the Ebola-hit Liberia.

According to sources at the Delhi Airport, aircraft coming from these areas will be taken to a remote bay. Passengers will be asked to fill up a form mentioning whether they have shown any symptoms related to Ebola.

They would also be made to pass through a thermal scanner and anybody who has temperatures above the normal temperature - showing signs of fever - will be quarantined.

A separate screening area has also been set up at the airport. Similar steps have been taken at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) in Mumbai.

According to Mumbai International Airport Limited, passengers without any symptoms will be cleared and shifted to terminal for immigration and customs clearance, those coming from Liberia with symptoms suggestive of EVD, will be directly shifted to designated hospital in ambulance from the bay. According to MIAL, Ethiopian Airline, Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, Jet and South African Airways are flying these passengers to Mumbai.

Some of these passengers will first arrive in Delhi and then come to Mumbai by domestic airlines flight, MIAL said. Mial also said the baggage of the flights need to be kept separate by the concerned airline in their custody, adding disinfection of the flight will be carried out once all passengers would be deboarded. Flights will be allowed to board next passengers only after thirty minutes of disinfection, it added.

PTI