Launching an attack on the State government, the Telangana unit of BJP has said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao must “wake up from deep slumber and act on expanding hospital bed count in the State, especially in the GHMC area since there has been steep increase in the infection rate and COVID-19 cases are spiking on a daily basis”.
Chief spokesperson K. Krishna Saagar Rao pointed out on Monday that there are an average of over 1,000 COVID-19 positive cases per day across Telangana and called for admission of the virus-affected patients into Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences, Gachibowli with immediate effect.
Mr. Rao charged that due to heavy rush of patients at all government and private hospitals, the health infrastructure is “clearly crumbling under the in-patient demand”. The government should make arrangements on war footing to expand the bed count in the GHMC area to ensure no patient is denied medical support and hospital beds. Health Minister Eatala Rajender should inform people about the immediate measures being taken up by his department to stop COVID-19 deaths due to lack of timely medical support and lack of adequate number of hospital beds, the BJP leader said.
Former Telangana BJP president and senior leader K. Laxman, in an open letter to the Chief Minister, compared him with the Roman Emperor Nero, ‘playing the fiddle’ while the State and especially the twin cities being ravaged by COVID-19. He accused him of leaving Pragati Bhavan and resting in the farmhouse even as the general public have been waiting in vain for the government to take up an effective containment strategy.
The government has been rudderless and clueless in handling the pandemic in light of the rising cases daily, he complained and said that there has been an exodus of people from the capital to the rural areas because of the ‘official leak’ of another ‘lockdown’ which has never materialised.
“Doctors and healthcare workers are struggling to treat the patients due to infrastructure deficiencies with cases being reported of patients not being discharged on refusal to pay exorbitant billing in private hospitals,” he said.
City president and MLC N. Ramchander Rao, too, alleged that the government has not been paying heed to even High Court rulings on COVID-19 with testing continuing to remain low. Ruling party bigwigs have been holding public and private functions without any precautions, he added.
‘False statements’
Meanwhile, party president B. Sanjay called for filing a case against the Chief Minister for making ‘false statements’ on coronavirus management rather than against reporters for publishing news.
