Passengers from US, France, Spain to be separated at airports: AAI

New Delhi, March 9 (IANS) The Airport Authority of India (AAI) on Monday said that passengers from the US, France and Spain will also be separated from other passengers at Indian airports till the conveyor belt areas.

Passengers flying in from China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Italy, Iran, Malaysia, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Nepal are already being segregated from other arriving passengers at the airports.

"Airports advised to include pax (passengers) from US, France & Spain to the list of nations(now 15)from where arriving pax needs segregation as per @MoHFW_INDIA," said the AAI in a tweet.

This is among the series of steps taken by the government including the aviation regulator DGCA and AAI, in the view of the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

Around 45 people have tested positive for the infection in India.

AAI Chairman Arvind Singh, along with officials from the Health Ministry and aviation regulator DGCA, reviewed arrangements made at international airports to rein in the spread of coronavirus.

Already screening of passengers coming from all parts of the world is being done at at 30 airports in the country.

The overall death toll in the Chinese mainland, the epicentre of the epidemic has reached 3,119, with a total of 80,735 confirmed cases.