Reduction in Covid tests bid to suppress numbers, says Delhi Congress chief

Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee head Anil Kumar Monday criticised the drop in the number of daily Covid tests, calling it an effort to suppress the number of cases.

“The Delhi government has reduced the number of Covid tests it is doing… It has put in place guidelines like tests can’t happen without prescriptions or without symptoms. First of all, where will those people who need Covid reports go? Secondly, the testing is reduced to reduce the fear of the wave,” said the Congress’s Delhi unit chief.

“A few days back, on January 12, 1.5 lakh tests were conducted in 24 hours. This has been coming down and on January 16, there were just 65,000 tests. This is a reduction of 30-40%. So obviously it will look like the infections are less, but this is dangerous. Without testing, there could be infectious people on the streets spreading it, and with the speed at which omicron is spreading, the load at hospitals can increase. Where there were one or two deaths a day in Delhi, now there is an average of more than 25 deaths a day. That means infections are increasing and it is proving to be fatal,” he alleged.

He also hit out at the Chief Minister for his election activities in various states. “Instead of working on the ongoing wave, Arvind Kejriwal is doing tourism. He can do door-to-door campaigning in Punjab, but can’t he visit hospitals in Delhi and deliberate on how to reduce the infections here. You can see how concerned the Chief Minister is about the people of Delhi.”