March 5, 2020
Saugata Roy’s intervention during a discussion on the coronavirus epidemic
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Sir, it is good that the House, after a four-day hiatus, has gathered in peace to discuss the serious matter affecting the health of the people. COVID-19 or the coronavirus disease is a new disease. We had earlier seen the Ebola virus problem. This coronavirus originated from Wuhan in China and has mainly spread to Iran, Italy and South Korea.
Sir, viruses are something which are very small and cannot be seen with naked eyes. Viruses cannot be seen even under a microscope, they can only be seen under an electron microscope. There is no proper cure for any viral disease, You can do only symptomatic treatment and can only try to contain the disease. In this case, you may avoid physical contact, not shake hands, keep a 3 feet distance, and cover your eyes, mouth and nostrils. These are the things that have been communicated to the people.
I suggest to the Minister that on every television channel and radio, there should be 15 seconds clips advising the people not to panic. There is a great panic throughout the country. So far only 29 people out of the 130 crore in our country have been diagnosed as positive. So, compared to other countries, the disease is still under control.
The Government of India has taken certain steps especially with regard to airports and the land ports but as someone mentioned, ours is a long and porous border and China, rather Wuhan, is close to us. Coronavirus se fever hota hai, cough hota hai, aur cough se droplets nikalta hai, so we have to advice people not to shake hands, keep a 3 feet distance and not to step on the droplets.
