Opinions & Interviews

Over 150 people screened for coronavirus at Minsk National Airport daily

MINSK, 18 March (BelTA) – Every day from 150 to 230 people are tested for coronavirus at Minsk National Airport, head of the epidemiology department of Minsk City Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology Yekaterina Khomchenko told reporters on 17 March, BelTA has learned.

“Public health professionals and laboratory workers are deployed at quarantine stations of the airport. There are two stations – one for passengers arriving from the Commonwealth of Independent States and the other for citizens of non-CIS states. Another two mobile stations to collect biological materials can be set up at rush hours. Every day we examine from 150 to 230 people depending on the passenger flow,” Yekaterina Khomchenko said.

Yekaterina Khomchenko

Control measures have been enhanced at the airport. Passengers undergo double thermal imaging control: at first people are screened on board a plane, after that the procedure is repeated in the airport building. Non-contact thermometers are used for more accurate measuring of temperature in people who showed increased temperature during thermal imaging.

People arriving from Italy, Iran, China and South Korea should fill in questionnaires. They should specify where exactly they have been and provide their contact details. They should also take tests. The information is forwarded to the quarantine stations. The quarantine stations process this information and notify medical professionals in the locations passengers are heading to about the need for medical observation of a particular person. Yekaterina Khomchenko noted that passengers take tests during customs control before they receive their luggage.

If people coming to Belarus from these four countries have not had an opportunity to take tests at the airport but feel healthy,  they will be able to take tests later in Minsk Infectious Diseases Hospital or Children’s Infectious Diseases Hospital. If a person falls sick, he/she needs to inform a local polyclinic and call an ambulance.

In order to minimize the possibility of importing the virus, the airport undertakes regular disinfection events, with a focus on most crowded areas of the airport.

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