Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday urged the government to ramp up testing as India fights the novel coronavirus outbreak. "In no way does a lockdown defeat the virus. It just stops it for some time. The biggest weapon against it is testing," he said.
He said that India's testing rates were too low. "Your testing has no move from chasing the virus to preempting the virus. One advise to the government: push testing aggressively, use it strategically. Not simply to track the infected -- but to see how virus is moving to create a map of India," he said.
Gandhi opined that in the future, there would be a massive financial backlash. Talking about "massive pressure on our financial system" he urged the government to manage its funds and be prepared for the fallout in the future.
"Provide food, put money in the bank accounts of the poorer sections of the society preemptively. Create a package for the aid of SMEs. Ensure protection for small businesses. There is food in godowns -- but it's not reached people yet," Gandhi said.
"To fight the COVID-19 virus, our main force is at the state and district level. so the fight should be botom up. PM should empower the army, ensure funds reach the states, he said. Gandhi said that ideally he'd have "liked more power decentralisation when it came to the Centre-state dynamics".
"Give GST to states. Communicate openly with CMs. There is a need for direction," Gandhi said.
"COVID-19 cannot be controlled but it has to be managed. One needs to go beyond conversation...actually start putting money on the table, dynamically asking CMs what they need," he said urging
Give as much money to the poorer weaker sections as possible, but keep in mind that there will be a financial backlash, Gandhi said.
He also urged that money be put in the bank accounts of the poorer sections of society.
Gandhi emphasised on the need for planning for the future. "After lockdown, what will your medical strategy be? that has to be decided before the lockdown is opened. There needs to be immediate action with regards this," he said.
Food distribution should be ramped up. Food in the godowns are overflowing and needs to be distributed to people, Gandhi said. Even if people don't have a ration card, a solution needs to be found, he added.
"We need to be much more liberal about the financial support being given to our people. The amount is nowhere near adequate," Gandhi said.
Rahul Gandhi said, "Biggest weapon against COVID19 is testing." "Testing at scale so you know where the virus is moving & you can isolate, target and fight it. Our testing rate is 199 out of a million, all tests that we've done in last 72 days, works out to approx average of 350 tests per dist," he added.
If you want to fight the virus, you've to increase the testing dramatically and your testing has to go from chasing the virus to moving ahead of it. You've to move to random testing and pre-empt where the virus is moving, said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
"I disagree with Narendra Modi with a lot of issues but now is not the time to fight. Unite and fight the virus," said Rahul Gandhi.
