RAHUL Gandhi stresses the need for maximizing test to isolate & defeat coronavirus

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has advised the Government for going in for aggressive testing to contain the spread of COVID-19. Addressing a Zoom press conference on April 16 after consultation with several experts, he called for  maximising testing and use testing strategically, use testing to assist the states in their fight, use testing not simply to track patients, who are infected, but  to create a map of India to see where the virus is moving, identify hotspots using testing. There is a need for scaling up testing and using testing strategically as currently, the testing levels are too low in India. The govt is not using testing strategically, he said adding we have a strategy to come out of the lockdown. Now, what are the things that need to be put in place? The lock down allows you the time and space to put in medical resources, to ramp up your testing ability, to prepare your hospitals, to get ventilators, to create the type of architecture, that is required to fight the virus. The  lockdown is like a pause button since it is not a solution to the Covid virus. Lockdown alone cannot defeat the virus. It stops the virus for some time. The biggest weapon is testing. Testing its scale to ascertain where the virus is moving and how to it can be isolated to fight it, the Member of Parliament from Kerala said.