Fadnavis alleges Maharashtra govt conducting less covid tests to keep count low

Jun 23, 2020

Pune (Maharashtra) [India], June 23 : Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday alleged that Maharashtra government is conducting less COVID tests per day to keep the count of coronavirus cases low.
"The biggest mistake is to show less numbers. Testing protocols that were needed, weren't made. In cities like Mumbai, they're testing 4000-4500 people in a day and we find 1500 positive cases. The state is trying to show less number" Fadnavis told reporters here.
"We have the capacity to do 38,000 tests per day but we are doing only 14,000 tests per day and I think it's dangerous. Now when cases are found more outside containment zones, more testing is the only solution," he said.
The former chief minister said that the Central government's team which visited Pune advised that testing should be increased.
"Dashboards are good but coordination with private hospitals by state government doesn't seem to be working well," he said.
Fadnavis said that lockdown cannot be permanent, it is not the policy but it is an intervention.
"Lockdown is an instrument to reach the policy. Now unless we get the vaccine we need to take pandemic management in our hands and with that, we should try to bring people's life normal. We should try to improve the economic condition," he said.
In Maharashtra, the total number of cases in the state has gone up to 1,35,796 and the total number of deaths in the state has gone up to 6,283.