STEPPING UP MEASURES AGAINST CORONAVIRUS

[Anchor Lead]

Authorities continue to step up quarantine screenings at airports, while some domestic airlines including Asiana have suspended some of their China-bound flights. The government is poised to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus by thoroughly checking the symptoms of passengers arriving from China.

[Pkg]

Passengers from Tianjin, China, arrive at Incheon International Airport. They are asked to line up in a separate quarantine screening section away from other passengers. They must also fill out health questionnaires about their travel history of the past three weeks and the presence of symptoms such as fever or cough. Those who provide false information are subject to severe punishment. Each passenger's body temperature is checked with a thermographic camera and thermometer. A woman found to have muscle pain is asked to undergo an in-depth epidemiological investigation.

[Soundbite] (KOREAN PASSENGER(VOICE ALTERED)) : "I feel as if I've been hit. (Does it hurt?) It does. That's why I'm worried. (Send her to the selected medical center.)"

Those with symptoms other than respiratory ones are transported to a selected medical center for additional screening. People with additional suspicious symptoms are moved to some 50 isolation wards within the quarantine station to block their contact with the outside world.

[Soundbite] KIM SANG-HEE(INCHEON AIRPORT NATIONAL QUARANTINE STATION) : "We are conducting quarantine screenings on the same level as during the MERS outbreak, and have raised the quarantine level to the highest."

Chinese tourists find such measures a little too excessive; nonetheless, they cooperate due to the graveness of the situation.

[Soundbite] LI JIE JING(CHINESE TOURIST) : "Everyone on the plane was wearing masks. I didn't take off mine even once. It's different from what it used to be."

Quarantine authorities already deployed more than 200 officers, but they have requested additional staff as the number of people subject to screening keeps rising.