The Telangana government on Monday blamed the Centre’s Narendra Modi government for the increasing number of Covid-19 cases and the low incidence of testing in the state as it witnessed the highest single-day spike in infections.
The state reported 872 new Covid-19 positive cases, the most in a single day so far, taking its total count to 8,674. Seven deaths were also reported during the day.
Areas falling under the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Area (GHMC) accounted for 713 of all cases reported on Monday.
Criticising the central government, state health minister Eatala Rajender said in a statement that the Modi government had done nothing for the state to help fight the coronavirus pandemic. “It washed off its hands by giving calls to the people to clap their hands and light the lamps,” he said.
Rajender alleged that the Centre had even diverted the Covid-19 testing machines ordered by Telangana to other states. He said that the Telangana government had placed an order with Roche Diagnostics Private Ltd in Mumbai in the first week of June for importing three Cobas 8800 Automated Molecular Systems, each having a capacity of testing 3,500 to 4,000 tests for Covid-19, from Frankfurt, Germany.
“The first consignment of the instrument was to be imported by the company on June 8. In the meantime, Indian Council of Medical Research had written to Roche Diagnostics last week, instructing that the instrument be diverted to National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), Kolkata immediately, on the pretext of national emergency and pandemic scenario,” the minister alleged.
{{/usCountry}}“The first consignment of the instrument was to be imported by the company on June 8. In the meantime, Indian Council of Medical Research had written to Roche Diagnostics last week, instructing that the instrument be diverted to National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), Kolkata immediately, on the pretext of national emergency and pandemic scenario,” the minister alleged.
{{/usCountry}}However, the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has blamed the KCR government for failure to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the state. Several BJP leaders including Telangana unit president Bandi Sanjay were put under house arrest on Monday as they were planning to hold dharna t in front of the Gandhi hospital in Hyderabad.
Accusing the BJP leaders of resorting to cheap and dirty politics on Covid-19 pandemic, Rajender said nobody could ever question the integrity and commitment of the K Chandrasekhar Rao government in fighting the virus.
“The Centre had washed off its hands by giving just Rs 214 crore to fight the Covid-19 and asking the people to clap and light lamps. The BJP leaders have no moral right to accuse the state government of conducting less number of tests, while the Centre diverted the testing machines being imported by the Centre,” he said.
He said the state-run labs at present have the capacity of conducting 2,290 tests per day and it would be increased to another 4,310 tests by next week.
According to the health bulletin, 3,189 samples were tested on Monday of which 872 turned out to be positive. Hyderabad accounted for 713 cases, followed by 107 infections from Ranga Reddy and 16 cases from Medchal districts.
While 12 cases were reported from Sangareddy, there were six from Warangal Rural, five from Mancherial, three each from Kamareddy and Medak, two each from Jangaon, Karimnagar and Mahabubabad and one case from Warangal Urban.
With a cumulative testing of 60,243 samples so far, Telangana has reported 8,674 Covid-19 positive cases that included 217 deaths while 51,569 samples came negative.