Centre's lapses on checking global travel led to coronavirus spread in India: Baghel

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, on Thursday, accused the Modi government for the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, contending that things would not have come to such a pass had the Centre put stringent checks on international travellers.

“The coronavirus would not have spread across the country if the Centre had screened international passengers properly and placed them under strict quarantine,” Baghel told reporters through video conferencing.

He also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of announcing the 21-day nationwide lockdown unilaterally, without consulting state governments and insisted that Chhattisgarh would decide on lifting \restrictions only after the Centre opened its cards.

Chhattisgarh has 11 confirmed cases of COVID-19 of which nine had recovered and were discharged from hospital.

Baghel said he had announced a curfew all across on March 18 when the first case of COVID-19 was reported positive in Chhattisgarh. He said the government had given orders to work from home on March 13 itself and had even asked government officials to come to office only when necessary.

Baghel also hit out at the Central Government for allowing the Tablighi Jamaat event despite prohibitory orders. “If international passengers from hotspots have been stopped, the congregation could also not have happened. I am not giving a clean chit to any organisation,” he said.

He claimed that the spread of the virus has been contained by quarantining all the international passengers and sealing off areas reporting COVID-19 cases.

However, asymptomatic persons testing positive for the disease much after the life cycle of the virus was a worrying trend witnessed in Chhattisgarh.

Regarding lifting of inter-state travel restrictions, the he said that he has written to the Prime Minister about it and it may come up during discussion on April 11.

Baghel said there were no hotspots across Chhattisgarh as the state government had taken proactive steps to lockdown areas reporting positive cases and succeeded in preventing the spread of the disease.