'Full lockdown' is the only way to stop Covid-19 spread: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been highly critical of the way that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre is tackling the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic in India.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday slammed the central government over its alleged mismanagement regarding the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) situation in India and said that a "full lockdown" is the only way to stop the spread of the virus at this point. Gandhi said that the Government of India doesn't realise the fact that its "inaction" is killing several innocent people.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been demanding free Covid-19 vaccination for all citizens of India, even terming the central government's current inoculation policy against the coronavirus disease as 'discriminatory'. (PTI)

"GOI doesn’t get it. The only way to stop the spread of Corona now is a full lockdown- with the protection of NYAY for the vulnerable sections. GOI’s inaction is killing many innocent people," tweeted Rahul Gandhi from his official handle on Twitter on Tuesday.

Rahul Gandhi has, over the past several weeks, been highly critical of the way the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre is handling the Covid-19 pandemic. He accused the central government of being "policy paralysed" and also alleged that the administration is not allowing actual data about coronavirus to reach the people. Taking to Twitter, he had said that the PM Narendra Modi-led government is controlling the facts of the data related to the pandemic.

Yesterday, after 24 patients in Karnataka's Chamarajanagar died due to alleged oxygen shortage in the district hospital, the Congress leader hit out at the ruling BJP over the deaths.

"Died or Killed? My heartfelt condolences to their families. How much more suffering before the 'system' wakes up?" tweeted Rahul Gandhi. On Sunday, he shared a report highlighting the deaths of journalists in India due to the disease. Congress demands free Covid-19 vaccination for all Indians, with several of its leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, terming the Centre's new vaccination policy discriminatory and pointing out that no other country in the world had such high-cost vaccines.

Meanwhile, India on Tuesday registered 357,229 new Covid-19 cases in the preceding 24 hours, taking the country's total coronavirus infection tally past the 20-million mark. 3,449 new fatalities were also recorded in the same duration, mounting the death toll to 222,408. The country's cumulative case count has now reached 20,282,833, according to the Union health ministry's dashboard at 9:15am.