Over 6,700 inbound passengers show possible virus symptoms

China customs have found 6,728 inbound passengers who showed symptoms of possible novel coronavirus infections by the end of Tuesday, with 75 later confirmed as having infections, General Administration of Customs said on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, customs across the country found 227 passengers with symptoms entering the country. Five of them were tested positive as carrying the virus after screening, including four in Shanghai and one in Beijing, the administration said in a release.

As of Tuesday, the country's customs have found 6,728 symptomatic passengers arriving from other countries, with 779 suspected cases and 75 confirmed cases, the administration said, adding that all cases were handed over to health departments in accordance with the work requirements of the joint prevention and control mechanism.

As the number of new confirmed cases continues to rise internationally, the risk of infections from abroad is also rising, making curbing the spread of the epidemic through ports a top priority, it said.

Since the outbreak, the customs have launched a health declaration system to check and monitor the body temperature of all entries and conduct medical inspections. Passengers who show symptoms, come from affected countries or regions, or have been in contact with confirmed or suspected patients would go through medical testing. Confirmed patients would be transported to hospitals and suspected cases would be quarantined.

The administration said that in response to the increasing import risk of the epidemic, the customs have closely tracked the development of epidemics overseas. All vehicles coming from countries or regions with severe epidemics situation will be quarantined and disinfected to cut off transmission channels.

Ports have also enforced the entry quarantine of other infectious diseases including Ebola and Lassa fever.