The Swedish government has announced that it will be contributing cash to a WHO fund to tackle the coronavirus but will not be monitoring or screening incoming airline passengers for the virus.
The government will be contributing 40 million Swedish krona (£3,182,080/$4,110,472) to the World Health Organisation’s crisis fund, which is designed to allow the international agency to act against the spread of the coronavirus.
Sweden has also classified the coronavirus as a “dangerous and socially hazardous disease,” which allows the government to enact certain control measures to combat the spread of the virus.
However, the Public Health Authority has so far determined that the threat to Sweden from the virus is very low and stated that it did not consider it necessary to screen airports and airline passengers for the virus at present time.
While Sweden has chosen not to screen for cases of the virus, Hungary announced Monday that it would be screening flights from Northern Italy using heat cameras to detect any travellers with higher than normal body temperatures.
The Hungarian government also advised its nationals to use “thorough consideration” before any trips to the Italian region which has seen a rapid outbreak of the virus in recent days.
Since last week, Italy has seen nearly 300 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and at least seven deaths across several of its northern regions including Lombardy, where there are at least 167 cases of infection.
Schools, museums, cinemas and pubs have all been closed in the city of Milan and the Catholic church has suspended masses in order to help contain the spread of the virus along with Venice cutting short its world-famous carnival.
The Italian head of civil protection Angelo Borrelli commented on the ongoing situation Monday stating, “Of the 219 confirmed cases of coronavirus in our country, 99 are hospitalized with symptoms, 23 are in more serious conditions in intensive care and 91 have no symptoms and are at home in isolation.”