Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday released a white paper on Covid-19, saying the purpose of the document is not to point finger at government. Addressing the media, Rahul said that the white paper is aimed at helping the nation to prepare for the third wave of infection.
"The aim of this white paper on COVID19 is not finger-pointing at the government but to help the nation prepare for the third wave of infection. The whole country knows that a third wave will strike," he said.
"It's clear that management of the first & second wave of COVID was disastrous, & we've tried to point out the reasons behind it. I would even go so far as to say that there might be waves even after the third wave of COVID19 as the virus is mutating," Rahul added.
He said that 90 per cent of people who have died could have been saved. "The biggest reason for this was the lack of oxygen at the time. While there is no shortage of oxygen in the country. PM's tears did not save the lives of people but oxygen could have," the former Congress president said.
On record vaccination of 86.16 lakh people on Monday, Rahul said: "Yes, good work has happened yesterday but this is not a series of events. But government has to make this process work not just for one day but everyday until we have vaccinated our whole population."
Rahul and his party colleagues have been attacking the government over its handling of the pandemic. He had earlier alleged that the "positivity" claims of the government are a "PR stunt to hide the actual number of deaths" due to the virus.
Earlier on Monday, Rahul had termed the Centre's decision of not paying an ex-gratia to kin of those who died of Covid-19 as "cruelty" and said that the compensation is just a small help for the people and the Modi government is unwilling to do that.
"It is impossible to evaluate life. The government's compensation is only a small help, but the Modi government is not ready to even do that. First the lack of treatment during the Covid-19 pandemic and then the false figures and on top of that the government's cruelty," he said in a tweet.
Meanwhile, India recorded 42,640 new cases in the last 24 hours, the lowest in 91 days. The death count climbed to 3,89,302 with 1,167 fresh fatalities.
The record low cases were reported on a day when the country vaccinated a 86.16 lakh people, the highest in a single day. The previous single-day record was of over 48 lakh doses on April 1. The country's cumulative vaccination coverage was recorded at over 28.36 crore since January 16, according to the data from the CoWIN portal.
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