1.15 lakh travellers screened for monkeypox, says Minister

One sample sent to NIV Pune has tested negative, says Ma. Subramanian

In the last 14 days, 1,15,332 persons who had travelled from 30 countries that have reported cases of monkeypox were screened on arrival at the four international airports in Tamil Nadu, according to Health Minister Ma. Subramanian.

Inspecting the ongoing screening measures at the Chennai airport on Friday, he said so far no case of monkeypox had been reported in the State.

“In Tamil Nadu, we started to screen persons arriving from the affected countries at all airports, particularly the international airports in Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai and Tiruchi, since May 20,” he told reporters.

“A total of 630 flights have arrived since May 20. A total of 1,15,332 travellers were screened at the four airports. Of these, 472 flights arrived in Chennai and 90,504 travellers were screened,” he added.

He said that based on suspicion, the sample lifted from a person in a private hospital in Chennai after developing unusual blisters on the face was sent to NIV, Pune and it tested negative for monkeypox.

The Minister said that 2% random RT-PCR testing of passengers continued in the State. In a day, 120 persons of the nearly 6,000 travellers arriving in Chennai were subjected to RT-PCR test. Apart from this, all passengers go through thermal screening.

He said on Friday, daily COVID-19 cases were fewer than the previous day in the State. Noting that cases in the institutional clusters were coming down, he said that of the 9,000 RT-PCR tests done on the campus of IIT-Madras, 237 were found to be positive. “As of now, there is no COVID-19 case on IIT Madras campus. At Sathya Sai Medical College, 74 persons were positive of the total 1,400 students. All of them are doing well. In Anna University, all students were tested and there were 23 positive cases alone as of now. All of them are asymptomatic,” he said.