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Updated: Apr 26, 2020 15:35 IST

The Congress party on Sunday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi presents a national plan to contain coronavirus as per the requirement under the National Disaster Management Act which has been invoked by the centre to implement measures like lockdown and other restrictions to prevent its further spread.

Congress said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should present a national plan before the chief ministers during Monday’s video conference meet called to consult states over the current situation of the outbreak, so that the state governments can formulate their own plans and strategies which can then percolate down to the district level- where the actual containment efforts are being carried out.

“Covid-19 is not going to disappear on May 3, the virus is here to stay, and therefore we have to prepare ourselves and the people to live with the virus. And what is the best strategy whereby India can cope with this pandemic which appears to be unrelenting at the moment,” he asked, adding that the national plan was a prerequisite for the country going forward.

The questions were raised by Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari, who held a press briefing via video conference on Sunday afternoon to raise some other questions like, over testing, alleging it to be very low and sought an explanation from the government on its testing strategy.

“If India’s capacity is to carry out one lakh tests a day, then what is the reason for capping the tests at 39,000? Is there an attempt to play down the magnitude of the disease or is the government unsure that testing to the full capacity will lead to negative outcomes that the government is not prepared to deal with,” he asked.

He went on to say that there was a report in the public space that said India had only 3 lakh RNA kits left. “The RNA kit is the most important component of the entire testing process. If that is true, then we will exhaust our testing capacity in a week’s time and be left without our testing shield. The government needs to tell the country, how many testing kits have been imported or manufactured in the last 36 days, how many given to which states, what has been the demand from different states, what is the position in regard to PPEs (Personal Protection Equipments), ventilators and masks,” Tiwari asked.

“Are we prepared to exit this lockdown in a calibrated manner,” he questioned further.

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Former Prime Minister and senior Congress leader Manmohan Singh has also raised a similar point and said that the battle against coronavirus can’t be won without more aggressive testing.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the May edition of his monthly Man ki Baat address on the All India Radio delivered earlier today warned people against complacency in fight against COVID-19 and appealed for continued care and precautions. Prime Minister also said that all sectors of society and business were adjusting to the realities of a post-coronavirus world.

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Congress leader Manish Tewari, however, alleged that a senior government official in Niti Aayog had claimed that there will be no fresh cases of coronavirus in the country after May 16 as per the projection/modeling done by experts based on the current data. He demanded to know if the government agreed with this assessment.

“We would like to ask the government if they stand by this projection that there will be no fresh cases by May 16, 2020,” Tiwari asked.