Minister of State for Home G. Kishan Reddy on Wednesday petitioned Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and sought continued medical assistance to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic in Telangana. The State government has come under criticism for not conducting enough tests.
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Mr. Reddy apprised the Health Minister of the increasing number of cases and urged him to continue the support of the Ministry to the State by providing required medical assistance such as N95 Masks, PPE Kits, ventilators etc.
Mr. Reddy is a Lok Sabha member from the Secunderabad constituency in Telangana.
Later speaking to reporters, Mr. Reddy said the State’s tally of tests per million population was far lower than that of other States and the national average, and it also had a higher positivity rate.
“There is no dearth of laboratories for conducting the tests for COVID-19, only few of them are actually functioning properly,” he said.
He added that the Centre had released ₹224 crore to the State under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and ₹215 crore had been provided by the Health Ministry as COVID-19 assistance.
