Two passengers who arrived at Kolkata’s Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport (NSCBI) from Bangkok have tested positive for the novel Coronavirus today.

“Passenger  Himadri Barman tested positive on Tuesday, while Nagendra Singh tested positive on Wednesday”, the Director of NSCBI Airport, Kaushik Bhattacharjee said.

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Both of them were sent to Beliaghata ID Hospital, he said.

“Earlier a passenger called Anita Oraon had also tested positive during thermal scanning,” Bhattacharjee said.

With this, a total of three passengers have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Kolkata.

Two airlines  have already suspended their flights between Kolkata and China.

Low cost carier IndiGo has temporarily suspended its flights between Kolkata and Guangzhou from February 6.

“In line with the WHO guideline to contain the spread of coronavirus, IndiGo will be suspending its Kolkata- Guangzhou service from February 6, 2020 to February 25, 2020 and Guangzhou-Kolkata from February 7 till February 26,” the airline had said in a statement.

After IndiGo, China Eastern Airlines suspended its flights between Kolkata and Kunming in China from February 10 to February 29.

Meanwhile, another passenger on board a Bangkok-Delhi flight was quarantined on Thursday after he was suspected of having contracted the novel Coronavirus, SpiceJet said.

The passenger was quarantined by the Airport Health Organisation after the plane landed at Delhi airport.

“On February 13, 2020, a passenger travelling on SpiceJet flight SG-88 operating between Bangkok and Delhi was suspected of Coronavirus infection,” the SpiceJet spokesperson said.

“He was seated on seat no. 31F and was the only passenger in that row. The said passenger was quarantined by Airport Health Organisation (APHO) after landing in Delhi,” he added.

Of the countries most at risk of importing Coronavirus cases, India ranks 17th, researchers have found on the basis of a mathematical model for the expected global spread of the virus that originated in China’s Wuhan area in December 2019.

So far India has reported 3 Coronavirus positive cases — all from Kerala.

Among the airports in India, the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi is most at risk, followed by airports in Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kochi, according to the model.

India had airlifted a total of 640 Indian students and seven Maldivian students from Wuhan on Saturday and Sunday in a complex evacuation operation.

The Coronavirus is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses ranging from the common cold to acute respiratory syndromes, but the virus in China is a novel strain and not seen before.

The deadly virus has spread to more than 25 countries.

China and countries around the world are scrambling to contain the spread of Coronavirus which first surfaced in Wuhan city in the Central Hubei province of China. Apart from China, two deaths have occurred in Hong Kong and the Philippines.

China reported a dramatic spike in confirmed Coronavirus virus cases on Thursday as the health authorities are diagnosing the cases under a new method raising the total number of nationwide infections to nearly 60,000.