Karnataka State Health Minister B Sriramulu who heads the COVID-19 task force in the state acknowledged the surge of cases and said that only God can save Karnataka from the pandemic.
Amid the surge of cases in the state, Karnataka has become the fourth worst affected state in the country behind Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi. The state has over 47,000 cases and is approaching to cross the 50,000 marks with Bengaluru being the wors-affected region in the city. The number of deaths in the state has crossed 900. For the third day in a row, Karnataka reported a third-highest spike in infection in the country and the second-highest toll in the country. Responding to the criticism of the government’s handling of COVID-19, Sriramulu said,
“Only God can save us, and we have to bring in caution on our own. World over, the cases are doubling indiscriminately. It (virus) does not differentiate between poor and rich or choose a community or religion. There is no class or caste difference. The cases are 100 percent going to increase from now. You can say it is the government’s apathy, ministers’ irresponsibility or blame the lack of coordination among ministers for the spike in cases but it’s not in anybody’s hands.”
Minister Rectifies Statement
There have been reports about differences between ministers on the management of COVID-19 regarding the splitting of the responsibilities. Before the minister’s statement could be taken as the helplessness, Sriramulu was quick to rectify the statement and said he meant to say “invoke the God’s blessings” and said it was not out of desperation.
Two days ago, Sriramulu had tweeted about the COVID-19 situation in Karnataka where he wrote,
“Every day more than 2,000 cases of coronavirus are coming to the fore. The number of cases will double in the next 15 to 30 days in Karnataka. The next two months are going to pose a big challenge for us.”
On Wednesday, he also added that the government has taken enough measures to contain the spread and also clarified that there is no dearth of funds to handle the situation.
Source: The Times of India
