NICOSIA – Stepping up tough measures against the possibility of a coronavirus outbreak, Cyprus said it would check passengers from four more countries coming to the island: Italy, South, Korea, Japan and Iran.

Those have shown a spreading of the deadly disease, which in Italy has been confined so far to northern regions as Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou said two more facilities will be opened a quarantine centers for people without symptoms but who were considered to be at risk, The Cyprus Mail reported.

He said after a meeting with the epidemiological surveillance unit that officials had three weeks earlier put in place a place to deal with the virus with anxiety ramping up that it could spread.

There were no reported plans, however, to bar passengers from the four countries where there have been infections and deaths to assess the situation and the latest developments as regards the virus, the minister said Cyprus already prepared a plan to tackle an epidemic if necessary, three weeks ago.

The government, he said, is sticking to World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) protocols and guidelines but decided to add travelers from the four countries.

He said they will be asked to fill questionnaires, and depending on their answers, necessary protocols will be activated and that airlines were asked to report cases presenting symptoms similar to those of the Covid 19 from any flight.

“The Health Ministry is constantly standing by and alert,” Ioannou said although that hasn’t fully calmed people worried about an outbreak hitting.