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BJP, Congress criticise Odisha govt for failing to meet COVID-19 testing target

Last Updated 16 June 2020, 17:33 IST

The opposition BJP and the Congress on Tuesday slammed the BJD government for failing to achieve its target of conducting 15,000 COVID-19 tests everyday, claiming that the state does only one-fifth of it now.

The BJD refuted the allegation with party spokesperson Sasmit Patra saying that COVID-19 tests are being conducted for symptomatic patients as per the guidelines laid down by the ICMR and the situation in the state is under control.

Odisha is also carrying out random testing as per the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) guidelines, he said.

The state's COVID-19 tally mounted to 4,163 on Tuesday with 108 more people, including 16 disaster response personnel, testing positive for the deadly virus, a health department official said.

Mounting a scathing attack on the state government over its COVID-19 test management, BJP's state general secretary Golak Mahapatra alleged that it has failed to achieve the daily target set by it for conducting the tests. As a result, the situation is assuming alarming proportions, he said.

While Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced that the government was taking measures to conduct 15,000 COVID-19 tests daily, around 3,000 to 4,000 samples are being tested per day and the total number of tests so far stood at a little over two lakh, Mahapatra said.

The BJP leader said that neighbouring Andhra Pradesh is conducting more than 15,000 coronavirus tests daily and has surpassed a total of 5.67 lakh tests.

Referring to Ganjam district, which has emerged as a COVID-19 hotspot in the state with 698 cases, Mahapatra said the virus had spread rapidly there because of laxity in enforcing measures.

Shopkeepers and traders dealing in essential articles who come in contact with a large number of people must undergo tests as a precautionary measure, he said.

A large number of migrant workers, who were lodged in quarantine centres after returning from other states, are being discharged on completion of seven days stay without COVID-19 tests, he claimed.

Similarly, coronavirus patients undergoing treatment in COVID-19 hospitals should be discharged only after they test negative for the infection, he said.

Senior Congress leader and MLA Suresh Kumar Routray accused the state government of misleading people by presenting "manipulated data" about the spread of novel coronavirus in the state.

While the government claimed that more than five lakh migrants have returned to the state from different parts of the country, only over two lakh samples have been tested for coronavirus so far, he said.

Despite a sharp rise in the number of coronavirus cases in Odisha, sample testing for the detection of the infection is decreasing gradually in the state, Routray claimed.

Though the chief minister had directed officials to ramp up COVID-19 testing capacity to 15,000 per day, the number of daily tests still remains low despite getting approval from the ICMR for conducting tests in many laboratories in the state, the Congress leader said.

The opposition leaders also said that Assam has succeeded in conducting 10,000 tests daily though COVID-19 cases were reported from the northeastern state much later.

Rejecting the allegations, BJD spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Patra said, the opposition should not indulge in petty politics when the entire country is in the midst of coronavirus crisis. He asserted that Odisha is in a better position because of the government's strategy.

Odisha has set up a large number of Temporary Medical Centres (TMCs) to lodge thousands of migrants returning to the state from different parts of the country which has helped in containing the spread of the disease, the BJD spokesperson claimed.

Noting that COVID-19 testing capacity has been increased to 15,000 per day in the state, he said, the tests are being conducted in accordance with the set of guidelines issued by the ICMR, according to which only symptomatic patients are tested for COVID-19.

Pointing out that the same procedure is also followed in the states ruled by the BJP and the Congress, he said, the saffron party should first learn about the COVID-19 testing guidelines and follow it instead of politicising such a sensitive issue.

Of the 4,163 COVID-19 cases reported in the coastal state, while 2,974 of them have recovered, eleven have died of the infection.

The total number of COVID-19 tests conducted so far in the state stands at 2,05,501, while 2,988 samples were tested on Monday, official sources said.

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(Published 16 June 2020, 17:33 IST)

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