A person who arrived in Varna from China monitored for coronavirus

A person who arrived at Varna Airport from China was being monitored in hospital in Varna, Bulgaria’s health minister, Kiril Ananiev, said on January 3.

The minister explained that he had been found to have a slight increase in body temperature and therefore the person is placed under monitoring as a preventative measure against the new coronavirus. He will be quarantined for 14 days.

Minister Ananiev was speaking after an inspection of the thermal cameras and equipment at Sofia Airport to check arriving passengers for possible symptoms of coronavirus.

The thermal camera was installed at Terminal 1 at Sofia airport. Soon, such cameras will be installed at Varna and Bourgas airports.

He explained that the passenger is taken by the sanitary vehicle, which transports him directly to the hospital without having contacts with other people.

He also added that the two Bulgarian youths, the boy and girl, who were evacuated from Wuhan on a French plane and arrived in Bulgaria late on Sunday, have tested negative for the new coronavirus. They have been accommodated in spate rooms in the military hospital in Sofia and will remain for monitoring.

Assoc. Prof. Georgi Popov, Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases. Military Medical Academy, Sofia said that the boy and the girl were in controlled access rooms, with negative pressure, with HEPA filters to prevent infection.

They will be given new virus tests in a week to prevent any false results in the event they became infected during the flight.

Assoc. Prof. Angel Kunchev, Chief State Health Inspector explained that specialist still do not know for sure which is the reservoir of the disease, although there are many interesting new data from Wuhan. It is not yet completely sure which animal is the species from which the disease started. Secondly, the mode of transmission has changed, initially it was quite difficult to transmit directly by air, but the latest data from China is that it can indeed be transmitted by contact, including domestic.

Three hospitals in Bulgaria can take patients from flights with suspicious symptoms - in Sofia this is the Military Medical Academy, in Varna - St. Marina hospital, in Bourgas - the district hospital.