Effectiveness of airport screening at detecting travellers infected with novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)

We evaluated effectiveness of thermal passenger screening for 2019-nCoV infection at airport exit and entry to inform public health decision-making. In our baseline scenario, we estimated that 46% (95% confidence interval: 36 to 58) of infected travellers would not be detected, depending on incubation period, sensitivity of exit and entry screening, and proportion of asymptomatic cases. Airport screening is unlikely to detect a sufficient proportion of 2019-nCoV infected travellers to avoid entry of infected travellers.

The study has been published in Eurosurveillance.

We also created an interactive tool to illustrate the effectiveness of airport screening in different scenarios.