Rahul Gandhi in a video press conference on Thursday again stressed the importance of testing saying lockdown is just a “pause button” in the spread of the coronavirus but not a “final solution”.
New Delhi| Rahul Gandhi in a video press conference on Thursday again stressed the importance of testing saying lockdown is just a “pause button” in the spread of the coronavirus but not a “final solution”. Gandhi further said that instead of chasing the virus by attending the patients who are infected, we should move a step ahead of the virus and try to contain the virus in the hotspots, by strategically maximizing the testing and testing random samples.
“When we come out of the lockdown, the virus is going to start its work again. So it’s very important that we have a strategy in place to come out of the lockdown. Lockdown allows you the time and space to put in medical resources, to ramp up testing facilities, to prepare hospitals and ventilators,” Rahul added.
“In no way does the lockdown defeats the virus. It stops the virus for some time. The biggest weapon against the virus is testing. By testing you can know how the virus is traveling so that you can target the virus and isolate it,” he further added.
“Our testing rate is 350 people per district. This is in no way enough to tell you how the virus is traveling. Your testing has to move from chasing the virus to going ahead of the virus. Use testing not just to track patients who are infected, but use the testing strategically to mark the areas on our map to track how the virus is traveling,” Gandhi said.
Further answering the question on administration, he said, “The fight against Covid-19, the main force is on state and district level. The success in Kerala and Wayanad because of the effective work of state and district administration. So I want to propose that the fight against Covid should not be “top-down” but “bottom-up”.
Talking about the crisis faced by immigrants, Gandhi suggested that the godowns in countries are full of grain and union government should give away to the poor. He also suggested that 20% of the poorest among the population should be given direct cash benefits.
On the question of why the government is not implementing the advice from Congress and whether it fears that Congress would get credit for it, Gandhi said, “I don’t’ want any credit, you take the credit. I care about the people of the country.”
He also proposed a safety net for people with food security and direct cash transfer.
He also said that it is very soon to declare a victory. He stressed that there are going to be economic consequences of this crisis. He also expressed his worries over unemployment that will rise.
He also said that every Indian should come together to fight this virus leaving behind caste, religion and every other difference.
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