Orissa minister, speaker to undergo SARS tests

Members of a delegation from Orissa including a minister and the assembly speaker that visited China will be screened for SARS.

Members of a delegation from Orissa including a minister and the assembly speaker that visited China last month will be screened for SARS, an official said here Thursday.

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The six-member team, including Scheduled Castes and Tribes Welfare Minister Balabhadra Majhi and Speaker Sarat Kumar Kar, had visited several cities in China from April 9-21.

Majhi and Kar said neither they nor any other delegates were tested for the killer pneumonia SARS on their return to New Delhi. During a stopover in Kuala Lumpur, however, the delegation was asked for details about its visit to China.

"They should undergo the test now," state Health Minister Prafulla Ghadai said. "We are going to request them to go in for screening."

Officials here pointed out that even Defence Minister George Fernandes was tested at the airport in New Delhi on his return this week from an official visit to China.

The central government had told Parliament that every passenger arriving from Southeast and East Asian destinations by air or sea would be screened for SARS at all entry points.

Though not a single case has been detected in Orissa yet, the state has sounded a SARS alert, especially after a few cases surfaced in neighbouring West Bengal.