by: Navjeevan Express

High COVID-19 mortality rate exposes Gujarat Model: Rahul

NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, JUNE 16
With Gujarat reporting an average 400 new coronavirus cases every day for the last one month, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and said that the high mortality rate due to COVID-19 has exposed the state’s model for disease control while senior Congress leader and treasurer Ahmed Patel on Tuesday accused the BJP government in the state of “drastically reducing” its healthcare expenditure over the years.


Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday took a jibe at the BJP-run government in Gujarat and said that the high mortality rate due to COVID-19 has exposed the state’s model for disease control.
“Covid19 mortality rate: Gujarat: 6.25% Maharashtra: 3.73% Rajasthan: 2.32% Punjab: 2.17% Puducherry: 1.98% Jharkhand: 0.5% Chhattisgarh: 0.35% Gujarat Model exposed,” Gandhi wrote on Twitter, quoting a news report.


In a tweet, Patel, a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat, cited data claiming that Gujarat is among the bottom states in terms of immunisation coverage.
“In 20 years, Gujarat is one of the handful of states where immunisation coverage has declined. Before 2000, Gujarat was spending 4.3 percent of its expenditure on healthcare, in 2018 it was roughly 0.72 percent. The entire state is paying a price for a flawed model,” Patel tweeted on Tuesday.
The data claims that Gujarat ranks 33rd out of total 36 states and UTs in achieving full immunisation.


Patel had questioned the COVID-19 testing charges of private laboratories.
In a tweet, he had asked why Ahmedabad-based private laboratories are charging Rs 4,500 when the same is Rs 2,200 in Mumbai.
As of June 15, the number of COVID-19 cases in Gujarat stood at 24,104 and the death toll 1,506.


Raising the issue in a press conference on Tuesday, Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda accused the BJP government of being a mute spectator to “looting” of people in name of testing.


Courtesy: TV9
“Why Gujarat’s mortality rate is highest in the country? Why Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not tweeting when people of his state are dying in such a large number? It was the high court that stepped in and allowed coronavirus testing in private laboratories,” said Chavda.
He said it was the state government’s responsibility to ensure that rates of tests remain affordable for people.
“If charges (for tests) are Rs 2,200 and Rs 2,900 in Mumbai and Andhra Pradesh, respectively, why Gujarat labs are charging Rs 4,500? People are being fleeced and the government remains only a mute spectator to this loot,” alleged Chavda.