Health Ministry officials have added passengers arriving from North America to the list of those undergoing inspection in the airport medical clinic, fearing they may be running a fever or showing signs of swine flu.

Previously, only passengers arriving from Mexico or states with confirmed infected victims were compelled to undergo a health inspection.

The new regulation includes anyone with a temperature of 38C (100.4F) and accompanying symptoms including a sore throat and/or cough will be referred to an emergency room. Officials are relaxing requests for arriving passengers to place themselves in volunteer 7-day quarantine at home.

In the meantime, a 31-year-old Nes Tziona resident and a 54-year-old Rechovot resident were hospitalized in isolation on Tuesday after returning from three days ago from the United States. The Rechovot resident is in Kaplan Hospital and the Nes Tziona resident was admitted to Assaf HaRofeh Hospital.

To date, there have been seven confirmed swine flu cases in Israel.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)