Quarantine inspections to identify people infected with swine flu aboard airplanes arriving from North America will be scaled down and terminated as early as the end of this week, health ministry officials said Tuesday.
Although the measure has been in place to prevent the entry of the new H1N1 strain of influenza, the number of domestic infections grew to 193 after the Kobe Municipal Government confirmed 10 additional patients, including a 1-year-old girl.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told a news conference the quarantine inspections were worthwhile because they discovered four cases of infection at Narita International Airport.