Congress accuses Karnataka Govt of ‘headline’ management over COVID-19 situation

Accusing the Karnataka government of doing ‘headline’ management instead of COVID-19 pandemic, the Opposition Congress on Wednesday asked the BJP to pay heed to its vaccine advisor Gagandeep Kang.

"Karnataka must listen to their own vaccine advisor to defeat COVID, rather than deal with the pandemic as merely a means to let BJP leaders Blackmarket vaccines and hospital beds," said DK Shivakumar, Karnataka Congress chief.

On Kang's appointment, Shivakumar said, "We thought the BJP government was finally taking scientific advice. However, it is clear it was only headline management because the government's actions do not reflect their own advisor's advice." Quoting Dr Kang’s 10 aspects of COVID-19 management that do not align with the Centre’s actions, Shivakumar asked, “does the BJP government agree with their own advisor?”

Congress asked if the Karnataka government agrees with Kang's comment that vaccine procurement should be done by the Centre and not by the states. He also asked whether the BJP agreed that India was "late on the table" in acquiring vaccines from global companies.

According to Congress, Dr Kang has been quoted in the media as saying, "The rest of the world has been buying vaccines at risk for a year, so what's the supply that is available in the market for us to go now and say we want to buy vaccines?" Gagandeep Kang also said that the Centre's claim of administering 2 billion vaccine doses by December should be taken "with a pinch of salt.”

Karnataka Govt's advisor criticises COVID management moves

The Karnataka Congress asked whether the BS Yediyurappa government agrees with Dr Kang’s assessment and by when they hope to vaccinate all adults in Karnataka. The party also questioned if the government agrees with its advisor's criticism of the approval that Covaxin got in January without publishing final efficacy data and her criticism that the government ignored early warnings of COVID second wave. Kang has been urging the Indian government to collect better and more data on Coronavirus and vaccines so that we can fight this war better, the party said.

According to the Union Health Ministry, Karnataka has 2,98,320 active COVID-19 cases. The total number of recoveries has reached 22,90,861 and fatalities have mounted to 29,554.

(with inputs from ANI)