The government on February 2 issued a new travel advisory asking people to refrain from travelling to China in view of coronavirus outbreak in its Hubei province and said travellers on return from the neighbouring country could be quarantined.



In its advisory, the Health Ministry also said anyone with travel history of China since January 15 could be quarantined. The decision of issuing a new travel advisory was taken at a high-level review meeting held by the Cabinet Secretary on the preparedness to deal with novel coronavirus which has now spread to 25 countries.

Secretaries of Health, External Affairs, Home Affairs, Civil Aviation, Dept of Health Research, and representatives from Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) attended the meeting.

As on February 2, 58,658 passengers from 445 flights have been screened for nCoV symptom. A total of 142 symptomatic travellers picked up by the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) have been referred to the isolation facilities.

As many as 130 samples have been tested of which 128 have been found to be negative so far. India has so far reported two positive cases of nCoV from Kerala. "Two positive cases found in Kerala are being monitored and are clinically stable," the health ministry said.

"The second batch of 330 passengers (including 7 Maldives citizens) from Wuhan have arrived in India. Of these, 300 (including 7 Maldives citizens) are housed at ITBP Chawla Camp and 30 are in Manesar. They are being effectively monitored," the ministry said. In addition, travel to India on E-visas has been temporarily suspended with immediate effect. This applies to holders of Chinese passports and applicants of other nationalities residing in China, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.