Amid growing concern over the spread of SARS-CoV-2, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar made statements in the Lok Sabha, detailing the government’s response to the WHO-certified pandemic.
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Mr. Jaishankar defended the decision to suspend all visas, except those for officials and diplomats, arguing that “exceptional situations require exceptional response”.
Quarantine cases
“India has said that if people from certain countries are coming here, they have to go through quarantine — in certain cases compulsory quarantine and in some cases discretionary quarantine — and Indian citizens who are coming back will obviously come back to quarantine conditions if that is required,” he said.
He was responding to a remark by N.K. Premchandran of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) that “the only country which is imposing a total ban is India”.
“At this time, travel in itself is not recommended as it only heightens risks,” the Minister said.
Stating that the virus outbreak was a matter of “great concern” and the government’s initial focus is to bring back Indian pilgrims stranded in Iran, Mr. Jaishankar told the Lok Sabha that there were over 6,000 Indian nationals in various provinces of Iran. These included some 1,100 pilgrims mainly from Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir and Maharashtra.
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In addition, there were nearly 300 students, primarily from Jammu and Kashmir; some 1,000 fishermen, many from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat; and others who were on longer term stay in Iran for pursuing their livelihood and religious studies.
In response to questions by MPs from the DMK (T.R. Baalu), the Congress (Hibi Eden and Manish Tewari) and the Aam Aadmi Party (Bhagwant Mann), Mr. Jaishankar detailed efforts made by the government for the safe return of the stranded Indians.
Mapping contacts
Dr. Harsh Vardhan made a detailed statement on the government’s efforts at testing, quarantine and mapping contact points of those who had been infected.
“There has been no lapse in terms of screening. I myself have spent over three hours at the Delhi airport to check our screening process. Today, we are screening at over 30 airports across the country,” he said.
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“As for laboratories, we have 51 such laboratories that have been set up with 56 collection points. We went up to the extent that when the Iranian government said they had no way of testing our people before being sent back, we sent an entire laboratory to be set up there,” Dr. Vardhan said.
“Members of Parliament should appreciate the fact that we are not getting anyone back without completion of scientific protocols, including 645 people from Wuhan, the epicentre of the disease. For Italy, too, we are trying to follow scientific protocols to bring back our people,” he said.
“Things are under control, and I request all MPs to openly discourage any large gatherings in your areas, and educate people on how they can protect themselves from the disease,” the Minister said.
