Rahul Gandhi warned that the pandemic is not over yet and the Centre must not take it lightly.
Amid rising coronavirus COVID-19 cases in the country, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday (February 17) claimed that the Indian government is being grossly negligent and over confident about COVID-19 pandemic. The Wayanad MP warned that the pandemic is not over yet and the Centre must not take it lightly.
"GOI is being grossly negligent and over confident about Covid-19. It’s not over yet," tweeted Rahul Gandhi.
The Gandhi scion issued the warning just a day after Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director General Dr Balram Bhargava said that four cases of the South African strain of the COVID-19 virus have been detected in India. Addressing a press conference, Dr Bhargava said that the country has also detected the Brazilian strain of the virus.
Dr Bhargava added that the infected people and their contacts have been quarantined.
ICMR has found a total of 192 Covid-19 cases of the new variants of mutated SARS-CoV-2 in last two months, including four from the variant emerging in South Africa and one from the Brazilian variant.
The remaining cases are all of the UK variant. "All confirmed cases are quarantined and treated," Dr Balram Bhargava said.
ICMR chief however noted that no mortality has been reported so far in the cases who contracted the UK variant as well as those who are infected by the variants from South Africa and Brazil.
It is to be noted that the Brazilian variant or P.1 lineage, was first detected in the first week of February in a person who returned from the South American country. According to Dr Bhargava, the Brazilian strain has spread to 15 countries, however, it has been successfully isolated and cultured at the NIV in India.
"The experiments are underway to assess the efficacy of vaccines on the Brazilian variant," Dr Bhargava said.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the new strains are more contagious and spread faster, and vaccines could be less effective on these patients.
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