Chinese ship MV Magnate docks at Chennai port, 2 with mild fever test negative for coronavirus

Chinese ship, MV Magnate, with 19 crew members on board has been allowed to dock at the Chennai port after they completed an incubation period of 14 days from the last visit to a Chinese port.

The ship has been kept out-of-bounds for people on the shore and neither have the crew members been allowed to access the shore.

On Wednesday morning, health officials visited the ship and collected blood samples of two crew members who had mild fevers but no symptoms of respiratory problems.

The samples were sent to the King Institute of Preventive Medicine, Guindy. Both of them tested negative for COVID-19, a disease caused by a coronavirus.

However, as a precautionary measure, the two crew members have been isolated on the ship. Health officials at the port told news agency IANS that the crew members, including the two whose blood samples were collected, were healthy otherwise.

Meanwhile, passengers arriving from China, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea are being made to undergo thermal screening at the Chennai airport. To date, 52,671 passengers have been screened at airports in Chennai, Tiruchirappalli (Trichy), Coimbatore and Madurai.