Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced extension of lockdown till May 3, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that the restrictions are only a pause button to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic but will not defeat the deadly disease.

Addressing a presser through video conferencing, he appealed to all the political parties to work unitedly in the fight against COVID-19. The Congress leader urged the Centre to revamp the testing ability and make arrangements for a sufficient number of ventilators.

He added that the lockdown is not a permanent solution to stop the virus, but the need of the hour is to test to identify those who have contracted the infection.

Meanwhile, ABP News in a tweet misquoted the former Congress President. The news organisation in Hindi wrote, "Rahul Gandhi said lockdown won't stop coronavirus. I have spoken to global experts." However Gandhi had said, "In no way does a lockdown defeat the virus. It just stops it for some time. The biggest weapon against it is testing."

Congress leaders also slammed the news channel for misquoting Rahul Gandhi. National Convenor of the party, Hasiba Amin tweeted, "Stop misquoting him @ABPNews. Enough with your misleading tactics. He said ONLY lockdown won't stop corona, we need to scale up testing. ONLY being the key word which you have conveniently left out! Have some shame."