The Opposition parties on Thursday accused the government of failing to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Congress party set up a mock intensive care unit in front of the Secretariat to spotlight the increasing number of new infections, hospitalisations and pandemic deaths in the State.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in turn, claimed Kerala had become the COVID-19 capital of India. Both parties chose to view the growing tide of infections through the political lens. They said the government had declared an early victory over the pandemic and failed to prepare for the worst.
“Kerala is in intensive care,” said Shashi Tharoor, MP, who inaugurated the protest. Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan said the government had buckled under the weight of the latest COVID surge.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was in denial and truanting from his responsibilities. He had shunned the public stage for nearly a month, he said.
Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan said the government’s inoculation programme had collapsed despite an abundant supply of vaccines from the Centre. The administration could not even bring the entire health workforce of the State under the vaccine net, he said.
The government’s COVID-19 management was merely political hyperbole. Mr. Vijayan, who used his daily COVID-19 press conferences to disparage political opponents and the Centre, had absconded.
Kerala’s home quarantine strategy had failed. The administration has admitted belatedly that the ill-thought programme had turned homes into super spreader locations.
Mr. Muraleedharan said the worsening pandemic situation had hobbled the prospects of NoRKs seeking to return to their workplaces abroad. Foreign countries now singled out Keralites for harsher tests and quarantine on arrival.
BJP State president K. Surendran said 68% of the new cases reported in the country were from Kerala. The pandemic situation in the State was grim. It threatened to overwhelm Kerala's finite health resources. The lockdown strategy had not yielded dividends. Instead, it crippled the economy, destroyed livelihoods and failed to stop recurrent infection surges, he said.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Veena George maintained that the government had anticipated the post-Onam COVID-19 surge and prepared in advance.
Meanwhile, Chief Secretary V.P. Joy and his counterpart in Maharashtra held an online meeting with the Centre. An official said Kerala had requested the Centre to send extra vaccine doses to ramp up vaccination.
An estimated 53% of the State's population had not contracted COVID-19 due to strict adherence to pandemic regulations. Hence, the State could outpace the pandemic by ramping up vaccination of the vulnerable population.
Published - August 26, 2021 08:26 pm IST
