Three Canadian airports will start asking air travellers from Wuhan, the epicentre of a new respiratory disease in China, to report to border officials if they have flu-like symptoms.

The move by the Public Health Agency of Canada to enhance screening measures this week for the new coronavirus at Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver comes after its U.S. counterpart announced Friday it will begin taking temperatures and asking about symptoms of passengers from the central Chinese city of Wuhan at New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco airports.

Canada won’t take the temperature of Wuhan passengers, but will only remind them to inform officials of their symptoms through messaging on arrival screens at Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver international airports. An additional health screening question will also be added to the electronic kiosks at those terminals.

“At this time, the overall risk to Canadians is assessed as low,” Tammy Jarbeau, a spokesperson for Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada, said in a statement. “This is based on the fact that Canada has no direct flights from Wuhan and the volume of travellers arriving indirectly from Wuhan is low.”

The new viral strain — causing respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties, and pneumonia and kidney failure in severe cases — has already sickened dozens and killed two in China since the World Health Organization received the first report on New Year’s Eve.

Media reports have cited exposure to seafood and meat in Wuhan as the possible cause for the infection, but it is uncertain if the virus can be spread from one person to the next. The new virus belongs to the same family of bugs that caused international outbreaks of SARS and MERS that began in 2002 and 2012.

According to the public health agency, Canada already has a standard border measures in place to prevent communicable diseases coming into the country through collaboration with the Canada Border Services Agency under the Quarantine Act.

If a traveller shows signs and symptoms of an infectious disease upon arrival, border officers or airport and airline staff conduct a preliminary screening of the traveller and can refer suspicious cases to a public health quarantine officer.

“The quarantine officer then performs a more detailed assessment by asking additional questions regarding the traveller’s symptoms and confirming information about the traveller’s country of origin and possible exposure to an infectious disease,” Jarbeau said.

“If deemed necessary, the quarantine officer can then take the appropriate measures to address the potential public health risk.”

A traveller can be sent to a hospital to undergo a medical examination and/or to report to the local public health authority, said Jarbeau.

Some 65,000 people travel to the U.S. from Wuhan each year and the first flight to be screened arrived at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport on Friday night. Only New York and San Francisco receive direct flights from Wuhan; those arriving in Los Angeles are on connecting flights.

American authorities did not screen incoming passengers during SARS and MERS, and some public health experts questioned whether they should do so now.

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“It’s not a particularly effective intervention, and it potentially offers a false sense of security,” said Dr. Kamran Khan, a University of Toronto researcher who has studied airport screenings during the SARS and Ebola outbreaks.

Screeners likely will flag a lot of people with other germs — it is flu season — while missing infections from the new virus. Experts believe it may take up to two weeks between the time someone is infected and when they come down with a fever and other symptoms.

With files from the Associated Press and New York Times