Union Minister V Muralidharan lashed out at Pinarayi Vijayan government for “taking credit for Kerala’s Covid success stories” and going mute when the state is “experiencing worst situation” with 19% test positivity rate (TPR).
The minister of state for external affairs ministry said that states like Maharashtra and Delhi will face the brunt of Kerala’s high caseload in future, “NRIs will be at receiving end too”.
The BJP has accused the Left government in the state of doing little to mitigate the health crisis and being busy in “covering it up” through motivated propaganda.
“The chief minister is not even uttering a word about the situation. In Kerala, one patient can spread the infection to 1.5 more percent than before,” Muralidharan told News18. Kerala on Wednesday reported 31,445 fresh Covid-19 cases and 215 deaths, pushing the total infection count to 38,83,429 and the fatalities to 19,972.
The last time the state crossed the 30,000-mark was on May 20 when it witnessed 30,491 cases. With 24,296 new infections on Tuesday, it had reported nearly 65 percent of the nationwide cases.
The Union minister also questioned the data Kerala was giving out on vaccination. “Without even getting any aid from the Centre, as they have been claiming, they have administered close to 10 lakh doses. The government also said that they have vaccinated 54% people. Where are these doses coming from?” he asked.
“After the Onam festivity, the infection has increased, do they have the health infrastructure for it? The hospitals are overwhelmed,” Muralidharan added.
While health minister Veena George said the testing drive had been launched to detect the infected at the earliest and reduce the virus spread, IMA Kerala secretary Dr Gopikumar P claimed that the cases are three times more of what is officially declared.
“The decison to test more has come too late. Our problems started when we stopped testing and contact tracing in a scientific manner despite knowing that the dominant variant in Kerala is the Delta variant that spreads faster and too more people. We suspect that the cases are three times more of what is officially declared.” Gopikumar was quoted by Times of India.
BJP spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said Kerala is in the grip of COVID-19, and the state government is busy covering it up. “Especially the newsreader turned health minister is busy reading the wrong script and spreading disinformation that everything is hunky-dory in Kerala,” he said.
The reality is that while the disease in almost all other parts of the country is under control, little effort is being made to curb it in the state, he claimed. Alleging that the state government has launched a “massive cover-up” by spreading disinformation, he said the people of Kerala are suffering.
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