Congress blames BJP rallies for COVID-19 spread in MP, claims 'community spread imminent'

On Thursday, senior Congress leader and former Minister PC Sharma attributed the COVID-19 spread in Madhya Pradesh to the rallies and meetings conducted by BJP. By-elections are due on 27 seats which have fallen vacant following resignations of 25 Congress MLAs and death of two legislators earlier. Observing that the novel coronavirus situation is "worrisome", he alleged that the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government had failed to control the spread of the pandemic.

According to Sharma, MP was gearing towards the community spread of the virus as the infection was not contained in the beginning. He lamented that the lockdown had to be imposed again after three months of lockdown and Saturday-Sunday lockdown. Moreover, the Congress leader demanded that all Ministers should undergo COVID-19 testing. This assumes significance in the wake of state Cabinet Minister Arvind Singh Bhadoria testing positive for the novel coronavirus. So far, MP has recorded 24,842 novel coronavirus cases, out of which 16,836 patients have been cured besides 770 deaths.

Congress leader PC Sharma remarked, "The condition of the state is worrisome and unfortunate. Three months of lockdown, then unlock period, Saturday-Sunday lockdown and now lockdown has been imposed for 10 days. The government has failed in handling coronavirus. There are no beds available in hospitals for COVID patients."

He added, "They did not control the infection in the beginning. Now we are heading towards community spread. Despite this, BJP leaders are conducting meetings and holding rallies. Coronavirus is also spreading because of this...The government has failed in containing coronavirus spread in Bhopal.

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COVID-19 crisis in India

Currently, there are 12,38,635 novel coronavirus cases out of which 7,82,607 patients have been discharged while 29,861 fatalities have been reported. The recoveries in a single day continued to rise significantly for the second time in a row. In the last 24 hours, 29,557 patients were cured and discharged, taking the country's recovery rate to 63.18%. The number of recovered cases outnumber active cases by 3,56,439. At present, there are 4,26,167 active COVID-19 cases in India. Additionally, India's case fatality rate stands at 2.41%, which is one of the lowest in the world.

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(With ANI inputs)