Unknown Chinese virus strain puts India on alert

Yet to receive any official communiqué on NRC or CAA from Centre, says K.T. Rama Rao

The unknown strain of corona virus causing pneumonia in Wuhan, China, has travelled to Thailand, raising fear that it can come to India as well, thanks to the daily flights to and from Thailand from different parts of the country.

As with the swine flu (H1N1) virus that came to India from Southeast Asia, a greater monitoring of pneumonia cases is needed to prevent an epidemic. In China, the virus was linked to a seafood market in Wuhan and it has affected 40 and killed one. A Wuhan woman travelled to Thailand and was diagnosed with mild pneumonia of that strain, as confirmed by the World Health Organisation

(WHO).

The WHO has not issued specific instructions to travelers but anxiety is growing. “The Indian swine epidemic alerted us to viruses that are closer to the country,” Dr Raman Prasad, senior pulmonologist at KIMS Hospital, said.

“A large number of people travel to Thailand and it is important to note the travel history and to record medical problems during and after the journey. This helps put control measures in place if the virus is transferred.”

Coughing and sneezing spreads the virus and its release in the air makes its next victim difficult to predict. The airport screening procedures earlier helped and experts insist that those who complain of the symptoms of cough, cold and flu must be screened at the international airport.

The Telangana Rashtra Samiti’s stand on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is clear and it does not have to react on the subject every time someone demands that it do so, the party’s working president and minister K.T. Rama Rao has said. “Our party MPs amply made it clear in Parliament that CAA in its current form was not acceptable to the TRS. Why not include Muslims in its purview? We are opposed to it and voted against the Citizenship Amendment Bill,” Mr Rama Rao said.

He told reporters at an informal interaction here on Thursday that no official communiqué has been received from the centre by the state on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) or National Population Register (NPR). When they come, the Chief Minister will discuss it with the cabinet and officials and after that he will take a decision, he said.

“As far as Kerala approaching the Supreme Court is concerned, it did what the Chief Minister there thought was right. We are a secular party and we said no exclusions because exclusions are not good for the country,” Mr Rama Rao said. He said when the Centre passed the Triple Talaq Bill and decreed the abrogation of Article 370A for Jammu & Kashmir, the opposition to those decisions was not on the scale witnessed now against the CAA.

■ RAMA RAO said when the Centre passed the Triple Talaq Bill and decreed the abrogation of Article 370A for J&K, the opposition was not on the scale of CAA.