MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/. Disease control measures have been stepped up in Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport amid reports of a novel coronavirus outbreak in China, Russia’s sanitary watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said on its website.
"In order to prevent the spreading of the novel coronavirus in Moscow, the Moscow department of Rospotrebnadzor stepped up sanitary and disease control measures at the Vnukovo International Airport," the organization said in a statement.
"Sanitary and disease control officials board the plane where they perform distant measurements of passengers’ body temperature and ask the crew whether fever or respiratory symptoms have been observed in any of passengers. Body temperature is checked once again in the hall of arrivals with the use of stationary thermal cameras," it said. "So far, none of passengers or crew members arriving from China has complained about health problems."
Similar measures have been introduced at another Moscow airport, Sheremetyevo. Earlier in the day, Russian media reported that coronavirus had been suspected in a transit passenger, but the airport’s press service refuted those reports.
"It was not the virus. A citizen of Canada en route from Bangkok sought assistance at the airport’s first-aid post suffering from apparent food poisoning. He has already departed," the press service said.
According to a source familiar with the situation, the man suffered from low blood pressure and gastroenteritis.
At the same time, Rospotrebnadzor said the passenger’s diagnosis has not yet been confirmed, but "all anti-epidemic measures have been carried out" and "the plane has been disinfected.".