The First Leader To Sense The Danger Of Foreign Returnee

Credit goes to Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao to have foreseen the possibility of the spread of coronavirus from Gulf countries into India. Though many other states ignored this aspect, Telangana had begun screening people coming back to Telangana from Gulf countries as CM saw the potential threat.

Those who returned from Gulf countries to India in February and early March were neither screened at airports nor advised for home quarantine.

The focus was on passengers from South Korea, Italy, Germany, Spain, China, and Iran. The 6 nation-block Gulf registered 3451 confirmed cases and 16 deaths as of Sunday with Saudi Arabia being on the top.

The screening of passengers arriving from Gulf countries began only in the second week of March when a young software professional Hyderabadi arrived in Bengaluru from Dubai and later traveled to Hyderabad and was found positive.

It was KCR who first sensed such foreign returnees as a potential threat and that they could trigger the spread of COVID-19.

When gulf authorities began announcing the incidence of COVID-19 cases on a daily basis, authorities back home in India realized that those who had returned from Gulf countries by then had begun to mingle with crowds.

As a result, in the past 2 weeks, several states from Delhi to Tamil Nadu are seeing a spike in the number of patients with a history of living in or transiting through Gulf countries.

Without waiting for data from the centre, the Telangana government has plunged into action. The district surveillance teams have managed to trace foreign returnees and ensured that such people do not violate their home quarantine period.

KCR has repeatedly emphasized the aspect of self-isolation of foreign returnees and is the first leader in the country to sense the impact of them on rest of the society.