Even as the number of COVID-19 positive cases in Gujarat crossed 10,000 and deaths reached 625, a war of words has broken out between the opposition Congress and the ruling BJP in the state.
For the last several days, questions are being raised over the number of tests conducted in Gujarat. The state claims to have conducted 1,38,407 tests so far. According to Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Jayanti Ravi, as per ICMR guidelines, private laboratories have been asked not to test asymptomatic patients.
It all began with senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel taking to Twitter and asking why Gujarat government was reducing the number of testing. He said that it was very disturbing and contrary to the national policy of increasing the tests.
Patel went on to add that in a pandemic it is important to be honest about the problem rather than trying to conceal it. With the help of a graph, he showed the number of testing in Ahmedabad from May 1 to 14.
Two hours after Patel's tweet, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani tweeted addressing the Congress leader and said that Gujarat has not at all decreased the number of tests. He asked Patel to recheck his information sources and also alleged that these were far away from facts and ground realities.
To this, Patel told Rupani that his information was sourced from government data. He said that either Rupani or his government was wrong. “Someone must resign? (sic),” he added.
Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda, too, alleged that the state is under-testing to conceal the figures.
State BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya hit back saying that in the times of crisis, the Congress was politicizing things. He said a special train was arranged by the Congress for Madarassa students to go back from Bharuch to their natives and in Surat two trains were arranged and payment was not done.
The last 24 hours ending at 5 pm on Saturday witnessed 19 deaths, taking the toll to 625. With 348 new cases, the total number of cases have gone up to 10,989. So far, 4,308 patients have been discharged from government and private hospitals.
