China kept world in dark about COVID-19 spread, matter discussed in Parliamentary Panel meet

In the Standing Committee of Parliament on Foreign Affairs (MEA) meeting on Wednesday, there was concern over the deadly COVID-19 virus and its spread. The government officials have briefed the Committee that, "China has kept in dark the world including India about COVID-19 virus spread, COVID-19 virus was detected on January 7 in China but India was not informed till 14th January and people were allowed to travel around the world."

Further, the officials informed the committee that for about seven-eight days China did not tell the world anything about this matter. Due to this, thousands of people kept coming from many countries of the world including India.

The Committee discussed and asked the status of the COVID-19 vaccine in the meeting. As per sources, the Health Ministry officials told the Parliamentary Committee that "the vaccine-related to corona will be available as soon as possible. Research in India is under process in a positive direction. However, the officials have not yet told the MPs the timeframe for the vaccine to come but the members of the committee have been told by the health officials to give the update in the next days."

The health ministry officials also told the committee that it is a positive thing for the country that COVID-19 cases in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai are decreasing.

The anti-maritime Bill was also discussed in the Committee on Foreign Affairs of Parliament on Wednesday. Although the discussion about this is still in the initial stages, India wants to make a tough Bill against pirates. The government is trying to work against the pirates according to their law.

Officials from Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Civil Aviation gave a presentation in front of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs.

( With inputs from ANI )