Health checks on Wuhan flights -ministry

(ANSA) - Rome, January 20 - Italy is checking flights from the Chinese city and region of Wuhan for "suspected symptomatic cases (of a SARS-like virus) and their eventual transfer in bio-containment" to Rome's Spallanzani Hospital where such infectious diseases are treated, the health ministry said Monday.
    Information posters have been put up at Fiumicino Airport, which has three direct flights from Wuhan and many non-direct ones, the ministry said.
    The SARS-like virus that has spread across China and reached three other Asian nations is contagious between humans, a government expert said Monday, fuelling fears of a major outbreak as millions travel for the Lunar New Year holiday.
    The new coronavirus strain, first discovered in the central city of Wuhan, has caused alarm because of its connection to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003. The total number of people diagnosed with the virus rose to 218, as Beijing and Shanghai confirmed their first cases on Monday while more than a dozen more emerged in southern Guangdong province and and 136 new ones were found over the weekend in Wuhan, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
    A third person died in Wuhan, the local health commission said. Scientists have scrambled to determine the mode of transmission, with a seafood market in Wuhan believed to be the centre of the outbreak.