The Union Health Ministry has decided to set up a joint action group involving central and state officials to strengthen India's vigil against fresh cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

The decision was taken after a series of high-level meetings called here by the Union Health Ministry on Thursday. The major special Centre-State joint action group will track the developments at the global and national level in order to initiate immediate action to fight the disease as and when necessary.

The central-state panel would be headed by the Union Health Secretary, S. K. Naik, and would include the joint secretaries in the Civil Aviation and Shipping Ministries, the directors of health services of Maharashtra, Kerala, West Bengal, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Nagaland, the Director-General of Health Services in the Union Health Ministry and the Director-General, Indian Council of Medical Research. A World Health Organisation (WHO) representative would also be included.

The new measures were decided at the two high-level meetings chaired by Union Health Minister Sushma Swaraj. While the first meeting was with representatives of various Union Ministries such as Home Affairs, Civil Aviation, Shipping and Tourism and also a representative from the WHO, the second was with the health secretaries and directors of health services of various States and Union Territories.

The meeting has also decided to supply masks to all airport employees, doctors and paramedical staff who ran the risk of contracting the disease through contact with affected persons. The masks - ranging from simple three-layered ones to the high-tech respirators developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for use in case of nuclear, chemical or biological attacks - would be given according to the risk potential.

While the staff at airports would be provided with the three-layered masks, costing between Rs. 3 and Rs. 5 a piece, doctors treating confirmed SARS cases would be provided with the DRDO's high-tech respirators, which cost about Rs. 2,200 each.

In the intermediate categories, paramedical staff at airports would be given what are called A-71 masks which cost about Rs. 80 each while doctors stationed at airports would get the next grade, N-95 masks costing Rs. 230 a piece. The masks would be distributed in the next few days.

The centre informed that all passengers arriving at the country's international airports would be screened for the disease and those suspected to be carrying the virus would be confined to isolation wards and would be discharged only when blood tests and other examinations proved negative.

In case the tests proved positive, the patients would be kept under observation. If they showed clinical symptoms, they would remain in isolation wards; and if they did not show clinical symptoms they would be kept in the isolation wards for two days and discharged on the condition they would remain in `home isolation' at least for 10 days.