A Chinese man was on Friday admitted to a hospital in Pune for possible exposure to novel coronavirus after he vomited on an Air India flight, PTI reported. The Pune-bound flight from Delhi was delayed by over four hours in that route because of the incident.
“He complained of nausea and vomited on board,” an Air India official said. “After the plane landed at the Pune airport, he was immediately isolated and shifted to Naidu Hospital.”
Chief Health Officer of Pune Municipal Corporation, Ramchandra Hankare, said the passenger’s blood samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology for analysis.
The Air India flight was cleaned and sanitised before it took off for Delhi again, officials said.
Meanwhile, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan told the Rajya Sabha that over 1.39 lakh people who travelled in 1,275 flights have been screened to detect symptoms of coronavirus. He said that 150 passengers identified with symptoms of the virus have been shifted to isolation facilities. Vardhan said that the government has taken several measures to stop the spread of the virus, including making visas issued to Chinese tourists invalid.
Till now, more than 31,160 people have been infected, and 636 people have died in China.
National carrier Air India has cancelled flights to China and Hong Kong until further notice while budget carrier IndiGo has suspended its flights until February 20. Two deaths have been reported outside China, in Hong Kong and the Philippines, but it is still unclear how deadly and contagious the virus is. Countries have quarantined hundreds of people and cut travel links with China.
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