Days after several governments have shut down schools across the country, YSRCP president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy seems to have finally woken up.

The chief minister, who dismissed corona virus as not a big threat as it is being made to be and prescribed paracetamol as an anti-dote for the dreaded virus, has finally decided to shut all educational institutions including schools and colleges in the state.

Jagan, it may be recalled, said that the coronavirus could be lethal for people suffering from asthama, blood pressure and kidney diseases. “In case anybody coming from other countries is found suffering from cold, cough and fever, bleaching powder should be sprayed on their belongings and things they use,” he said at a hurriedly held press conference soon after the SEC postponed civic body elections in Andhra Pradesh.

His counterpart in Telangana K Chandrasekhara Rao had already announced various measures to contain and tackle the spread of the virus with Telangana reporting six cases so far. The Telangana government had closed schools, colleges, malls, cinema halls as a precautionary measure to contain and tackle the spread of virus.

The total coronavirus positive cases in India has climbed to 153, which includes 25 foreign nationals and three persons who died in Delhi, Karnataka and Maharashtra.