Health Minister accuses oppn of politics over Covid, says India has one of the lowest death rates

New Delhi, Dec 3 (FN Agency) Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday accused the Opposition of indulging in “politics” over Covid-19, and stressed that the Union government took appropriate actions to manage the pandemic, adding that India recorded one of the lowest death rates of Novel Coronavirus. The Minister, however, did not give any figure on Covid deaths, saying that the states have not provided the data. Replying to a debate on Covid-19 situation amid growing concerns over the new Omicron variant that went on for nearly 12 hours on Thursday and saw the participation of 75 MPs, the Minister said that so far, 3.46 crore Covid cases have been reported in India, and 4.69 lakh people have died, which is 1.36 per cent of the total cases. He said the death rate is 340 per 5,000 cases which is one of the lowest in the world. “The manner in which the decisions and action were taken, it shows that Modi ji’s government is not working on ‘power’ but ‘will power’,” Madaviya said. Responding to the Opposition’s charge of non-functioning ventilators being bought under the PM Cares fund, the Minister said, “India had 16,000 ventilators, after the first and second wave, the demands increased. Experts Committee gave its recommendation that we need more than 75,000 ventilators.

Government of India gave an order for 58,000 ventilators and 97 per cent of the orders went to PSUs,” he said. He added that 48,000 ventilators were installed. “After politics on ventilators started after the second wave, we became even more alert, ensuring that the states which got the ventilators, installed them,”he said. He also said that medicines like Hydroxychloroquine and Remdesivir were made available to the people. Congress leader in the House Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury asked the Minister about deaths due to lack of oxygen, to which the Minister replied that he will provide the data as soon as states provide the same. On Friday morning, in reply to a supplementary question in the Lok Sabha, the Minister had said, “Centre through letters to states between July and August had asked for report over Covid and oxygen shortage deaths. Altogether, 19 states, including UP, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam responded.” “Only, Punjab had said it had reported four ‘suspected’ deaths because of oxygen shortage,” Mandaviya said. He also said that the government was vigilant and alert. The first Covid-19 case in India was reported on January 13, 2020 in Kerala, but the first meeting of joint monitoring committee constituted by the Centre was held on January 8. “It means we were alert, a committee had been formed before the case was reported and it had started working,” he added.