Indian port authorities have decided not to allow the disembarkation of crew of ships from China, as well as Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand and Singapore, to avoid the spreading of the deadly coronavirus. "Disembarkation of crew of ships from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand and Singapore are not allowed in order to avoid any risk of coronavirus spreading here. This condition is applicable in all the Indian ports," S. Senthilnathan, Health Officer, Chennai Port, told IANS.

He further said that the ships from these countries are allowed to berth but the crew will not be allowed to disembark regardless of their nationality.

The berthing ships will also not be allowed to dump their garbage.

According to Senthilnathan, pre-arrival health data of the crew from all the ships are collected even before they berth.

Data about crew joining the ship midway will also be collected.

According to him, special focus is on ships coming from Chinese ports with or without Chinese crew; ship though it has not called on a Chinese port but has one or more Chinese crew and one or more crew who are not Chinese, but boarded the ship at a Chinese port.

Senthilnathan said once a ship with the above 'China connection' is berthed, the health condition of the crew will be monitored continuously.

He had earlier said that an average 20 cargo ships from China call on the Chennai and Kamarajar ports.

Each ship have about 25 crew members, a total of 400 crew per month. The average number of crew who would join the ships in a China port will be only about 10-20, he said.

He had said ships calling on Chennai, Kamarajar, Adani and Nagapattinam ports in Tamil Nadu and the Karaikal port in Puducherry are monitored from here.

Meanwhile  a Chinese national, who was quarantined in Pune's Naidu hospital, on exhibiting symptoms of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has hailed the team of doctors and health authorities.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday tweeted: "Caring for all! Thoughts of a Chinese national who was isolated in Naidu hospital in Pune on exhibiting symptoms of #COVID19.#HealthForAll#HelpingAll."

The Chinese national had written the letter to the health authorities on Tuesday. The letter was a handwritten one.

The Health Ministry had attached the letter in their tweet.

The letter said: "It was all of a sudden that I have been sent here. I was quite nervous because of the facility and language problems. However, everyone was very helpful in this special time for Chinese people" read the letter, adding "everything is quite well managed including buying food, cleaning and washing service. Even though its an isolation but it does not really feel so."

The Chinese person also hailed the hospital staff in the letter and said "So again thanks everyone. Doctors and nurses and other staff, have a good luck in 2020." Further, the letter was written in native language.