Some 16,076 crew members and passengers on ships from China and other coronavirus-hit countries have been scanned and denied permission to disembark at Indian ports as a precaution, a shipping ministry official said on Thursday.
However, all possible help is being provided, in keeping with World Health Organisation guidelines, to those among them with fever or any other symptom, he said.
“As many as 452 ships with cargo and 16,076 crew and passengers have arrived at Indian ports so far from China or (with) a travel history to countries affected by coronavirus,” the official told PTI.
“As a precautionary measure, we have not allowed the passengers and crew to disembark but the ships have been allowed to anchor at designated places. The cargo has been brought in with all precautions. No shore pass is being issued to the crew/seafarers with a travel history from the infected countries.”
In deference to WHO guidelines, everyone aboard the vessels has undergone a health scan and is being provided with all necessary facilities, the official added.
He said a crew member who had developed fever on board the Chemstar Stellar at Paradip port had been evacuated with his wife and taken to the SCB Medical College, Cuttack, for further tests.
The vessel had sailed from Zapu, China, on February 10 and reached Paradip on March 1. In between, it had been to South Korea and Singapore.
Two crew members on board the MV Magnate from China had shown symptoms of fever during scanning on February 19 at berthing but their samples later tested negative for COVID-19, the coronavirus, the official said.
Earlier, a Filipino crew member on board the MV Boudicca had shown coronavirus-like symptoms and was kept in isolation at the ship’s hospital. But his blood sample tested negative at the Kasturba Hospital, Mumbai.
Thirty positive cases have so far been reported in India, the patients including 16 Italian tourists. Globally, the virus has claimed over 3,000 lives besides infecting more than 90,000 people.
India has 12 major ports — Deendayal (formerly Kandla), Mumbai, JNPT, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Kamarajar (earlier Ennore), V.O. Chidambaranar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Calcutta (including Haldia) — which handled 699.04 million tonnes of cargo during the fiscal year 2018-19. Another 200 or so non-major ports are under the control of the state governments.
Last month, the Centre had directed all the 12 major ports to immediately put in place a screening, detection and quarantine system for “disembarking seafarers or cruise passengers” as a preventive measure against a coronavirus outbreak.
Directions had also been issued to the ports to procure N-95 masks as well as thermal scanners to screen passengers, besides obtaining self-declarations from the arriving crew and passengers.
