Coronavirus: India’s government criticized by opposition over handling of COVID-19
India reported another record daily increase in coronavirus infections Thursday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government faced scathing opposition criticism in Parliament over its handling of the pandemic and a contracting economy.
Confirmed cases jumped by 97,894 in the past 24 hours, raising India’s total past 5.1 million, 0.36 percent of its nearly 1.4 billion people, the Health Ministry reported.
It also said 1,132 more people died in the past 24 hours, for a total of 83,198.
India’s fatalities are the third most in the world, but experts say India has undercounted the COVID-19 toll.
India’s infection numbers are expected within weeks to pass the US, where more than 6.6 million people have been infected.
On Wednesday, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari became the second key minister after Home Minister Amit Shah to test positive. Shah was hospitalized for a second time this week due to COVID-19.
As Parliament resumed sittings after a gap of five months, Anand Sharma, Derek O’Brien and other opposition leaders criticized Modi for abruptly imposing a two-month lockdown across the country in March.
India's Prime Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Narendra Modi gestures as he speaks during a rally in New Delhi. (File photo: AFP)
They said Modi gave no time for state governments to prepare to handle the pandemic and prevent distress to millions of migrant workers who fled their places of work to return to their village homes.
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan defended the government decision and said the lockdown prevented up to 3 million additional cases and up to 78,000 deaths.
Nationwide, India is testing more than 1 million samples per day, a dramatic increase made possible by using a faster, cheaper, but less accurate testing method.
On Wednesday, the New Delhi High Court ordered the government to increase RT-PCR tests, which look for the virus genetic code, because the antigen tests that look for viral proteins were only 60 percent accurate.
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