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Indian main opposition leader from the Congress party Rahul Gandhi said on Thursday that a lockdown was not the solution to fight COVID-19 and the government should instead go for testing "aggressively and strategically".
"First thing to understand is that a lockdown is like a pause button, it's in no way a solution to coronavirus. When we come out of lockdown, the virus will start its work again. So, it's important that we have a strategy to come out of lockdown," Gandhi told media through a video chat.
The former Congress president said the biggest weapon against the virus was testing and the government should scale-up its efforts to carry out tests massively.
The Indian government announced a three-week nationwide lockdown on March 25 to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. However, with the increase in cases on Tuesday, it extended the ongoing lockdown until May 3.
According to India's top health research body -- the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), until Wednesday evening 274,599 samples from 258,730 individuals have been tested.
India's federal health ministry on Thursday morning said the death toll due to COVID-19 in India rose to 414 and the total number of confirmed cases in the country reached 12,380.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
