Govt’s Covid-19 test move too little, too late, says Congress

HYDERABAD: Terming the TRS government’s decision to allow private hospitals and labs to conduct Covid-19 tests as “too little, too late,” Congress has demanded that chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao not stop at 50,000 tests with focus only in and around Hyderabad.
The government should bear the cost of Covid-19 testing and treatment in private hospitals, demanded Telangana Congress treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy.
Welcoming the decision to permit tests in private hospitals and labs, he said chief minister Chandrasekhar Rao delayed the decision by one-and-a-half months although the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) had authorised 18 private hospitals and laboratories to conduct Covid-19 tests in addition to nine government hospitals/institutions.
Former minister Mohd Ali Shabbir demanded that the testing and treatment of coronavirus patients should be completely free for poor and middle-class sections of society.
Also, Covid-19 treatment should be included in the list of diseases covered under the Aarogyasri scheme.