It was unfortunate that instead of taking note of the sudden spurt, CM KCR was busy with inaugurations and social events, the party said.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy expressed serious concern over the sudden rise in the number of coronavirus cases in the state.
Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan today, Reddy said that the highest ever number of new cases in a day, 169, had been registered in Telangana on Friday.
"It is highly unfortunate that instead of taking note of the sudden spurt in the number of Covid-19 cases, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is busy in inaugurations, poojas and yagnams," he said.
Reddy said that the Chief Minister was either deliberately misleading the people or was himself confused over the Covid-19 situation in the state.
Referring to a statement given by the Chief Minister on May 27, he said that the Chief Minister had claimed that the coronavirus spread was not on an alarming scale.
There were only 27 cases when the Janata Curfew was observed on March 22, Reddy pointed out. 68 days later, the cases had increased to 2,425, and that too during the lockdown. And as many as 1,409 cases had been reported in the last one month, and 664 of them were registered in just the last one week.
He asked KCR to then define the meaning of "alarming scale".
He said that the actual numbers were perhaps 200-300% higher, and that they would come out if the state government increased the testing percentage and permitted private labs to conduct tests.
He added that the KCR government was ignoring even the orders of the High Court in this regard.
The Congress leader said that IAS and IPS officers lacked the expertise to deal with pandemics, and demanded that the state government immediately appoint an epidemiologist to assist the state in battling the outbreak.
He also pointed out that Telangana did not have even 1,000 ventilators, and asked the government to upgrade the entire health infrastructure, including trained health professionals, to tackle any eventuality.
He said that lessons should be learnt from countries like the USA, Spain, France etc., which could not handle the sudden spurt in Covid-19 cases resulting in the deaths of thousands of people.
Reddy also said that the recovery rate of Covid-19 patients in Telangana was just 56.95%, which was quite low compared to those in other states with large numbers of cases.
"The KCR government has no strategy to deal with the coronavirus situation. Instead of taking corrective measures, KCR is giving misleading statements to divert the people's attention from his failures," he said.
"Initially, KCR had defended a lockdown as necessary for the prevention of the spread of the coronavirus. Now he is defending the relaxation in the lockdown. The Chief Minister himself is also openly violated the norms for social distancing, and no one was wearing a mask during the inauguration of the Konda Pochamma Sagar project on Friday. KCR is the Chief Minister of Telangana which has a population of over 3.5 crore. He should behave responsibly and send a positive message to the people through his actions. By not wearing a mask and not maintaining physical distance, he gave a wrong impression to the people that the Covid-19 scare was no more relevant," he added.
Reddy said that the implementation of the lockdown was erratic. Even now the state government was issuing different guidelines every day - initially shops were permitted to stay open on alternate days, and even before that was implemented, new orders were issued that all of them, except those in shopping malls, could stay open on all days.
The Congress leader appealed to the Chief Minister to undo the mistakes committed so far and take immediate measures on a war footing to avert a catastrophe. He said that the rising number of coronavirus cases should not be taken lightly, and that all suspects, with or without symptoms, should be traced, tested and treated.