NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, MAY 5
The Gujarat Congress on Wednesday demanded that the state government supply the primary and community health centres in rural parts with adequate amount of vital medicines, medical equipment and testing kits to deal with the rising cases of COVID-19.
Met @CMOGuj with @INCGujarat leaders and discussed various issues related to #COVID19 including proper arrangement for availability of beds in hospitals, oxygen, medicines, injections and ambulance services. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/BKqOLUXqPw
— Bharat Solanki (@BharatSolankee) May 5, 2021
The opposition party claimed the state government has reduced the number of RT-PCR tests in an effort to hide coronavirus-related deaths. The Congress said medicines, oxygen cylinders, ventilators, ICU ambulances, doctors, other medical staff and RT-PCR testing facilities should be provided in sufficient numbers to health centres in rural Gujarat.
@INCGujarat દ્વારા શરૂ કરેલ અભિયાન અંતર્ગત વડોદરાના શ્રી ચંદ્રશેખર પાટીલ દ્વારા પ્લાઝમા દાન કરી કોરોના સંક્રમિત વ્યક્તિને જીવનદાન આપવામાં આવ્યું.અન્ય મિત્રો જેઓ છેલ્લા ૩ માસમાં કોરોના સંક્રમિત થયેલ છે અને હાલ સ્વસ્થ છે તેઓ પણ આ સેવાયજ્ઞમાં જોડાય તેવી અપીલ#DonatePlasmaSaveSmiles pic.twitter.com/6uleo2zCmw
— Gujarat Congress (@INCGujarat) May 5, 2021
A delegation of senior Congress leaders met Chief Minister Vijay Rupani at his residence in Gandhinagar and urged him to ensure that the rural populace is not left to suffer in the second wave of the pandemic.
“Health facilities in rural Gujarat are inadequate to deal with the present crisis. The existing primary and community health centres (PHCs and CHCs) are not property supplied with medicines and other facilities required to deal with the rising cases. “We met the CM to discuss issues regarding fighting coronavirus in rural Gujarat,” Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Paresh Dhanani told reporters after the meeting.
Dhanani, who met Rupani along with senior Congress leaders Amit Chavda, Bharatsinh Solanki, Arjun Modhwadia and Shailesh Parmar, among others, said they requested him to immediately set up a ”viral disaster management and coordination committee” at the taluka, district and state levels to deal with the health crisis.
“Considering the ground reality at the rural level, supply (of medicines and equipment) should be made in accordance with demand so that precious lives are saved. All the state’s PHCs and CHCs should be provided with sufficient amount of medicines, including Remdesivir and tocilizumab, as well as medical oxygen, empty cylinders, pulse oximeters primary-level ventilators and other equipment to treat COVID-19 patients,” he said.
Dhanani said the state government should also set up CT-scan facilities at taluka level and provide free service to people.
“The BJP government has been reducing RT-PCR tests in its effort to hide the number of deaths occurring due to coronavirus. It is the government’s effort to hide its own failure. It should increase the number of tests,” he said.
The government launched a campaign on May 1, the state’s foundation day, to make rural Gujarat free of coronavirus. As part of the campaign, over 13,000 villages have set up community COVID-19 care centres and created a facility of 1.20 lakh beds, the government said on Wednesday.
In five days, 2,627 patients have been shifted to these centres, an official release said.
Gujarat’s COVID-19 tally rose to 6,20,472 with the addition of 13,050 new cases on Tuesday. The state’s COVID-19 death toll stood at 7,779, the health department said.
