Congress leader Rahul Gandhi slams Centre of being 'grossly negligent' about COVID-19

New Delhi, Feb 17: In a recent development, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday slammed the Centre for being "grossly negligent" about the coronavirus situation in the country.

Sharing a screenshot of a news report on Twitter, the Congress leader said, "GOI is being grossly negligent and over confident about Covid-19. It's not over yet."

The Congress leader's tweet came in response to the government stating that the South African and the Brazilian variants of COVID-19 have entered the country.

Director-General of Indian Centre for Medical Research Dr Balram Bhargava told media on Tuesday that India has recorded at least one case of the Brazilian variant of COVID-19 and four cases of the South African variant and that the infected people and their contacts have been quarantined.

"ICMR-NIV is attempting to isolate and culture the South African variant of SARS-CoV-2, while the Brazilian variant of SAS-CoV-2 has been isolated and cultured at ICMR-NIV-Pune," Dr Bhargava said.

The ICMR chief said India currently has 187 patients who have been infected with the UK variant of the Covid-19 virus. There have been no mortalities among the people infected with the UK variant.

"All confirmed cases are quarantined and treated. Their contacts have been isolated and tested. Neutralisation potential with the UK variant of the virus is there with the vaccine that we have," Dr Balram Bhargava had said.