COIMBATORE: Amid the threat of contracting the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) that Saudi Arabia is currently reeling under, the Umrah pilgrimage rush during Ramzan is slated to begin within a few weeks.
While the Union health ministry has already issued an advisory to people travelling to Saudi Arabia and other affected countries to take necessary precautions, the message doesn’t appear to have percolated to the public health and airport authorities in Tamil Nadu.
“We have not received any directives in this regard from the directorate so far. We will do the needful when these are issued,” said S Somasundaram, Deputy Director of Health Services.
For its part, the Centre said that the immigration and airlines have been told to take adqeuqate steps to screen passengers and even make inflight announcements to check if any passenger is suffering from fever, cough, respiratory discomfort or distress. Such cases must be reported at the immigration or medical unit on arrival. “This is important for early diagnosis for prompt management and preventing spread, ” the advisory said.
However, Mahalingam, Director (in charge) of the Coimbatore International Airport said they had not received any alert about MERS. “Till this morning we have not received any directives from the Health Ministry or other authorities.”
