New Delhi, April 5 Demanding compensation for Covid-19 deaths, the Congress, here on Sunday, said the Centre should transfer the fund to states and posed nine questions to the Prime Minister in response to the Sunday 9 p.m. lamp lighting event.
"As the Covid-19 toll is rising, the government should pay compensation to the next of kin of coronavirus victims," said Congress Spokesperson Sushmita Dev.
On the "lamp lighting" call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she said there was no "harm" in lighting the lamp. If the Prime Minister wanted we would do that, but it alone won't help in fighting the pandemic, she said and added, the government should respond to nine questions raised by the Congress.
The nine questions included shortage of the personal protection equipment (PPEs) and five-week delay in placing of orders for it. The Congress said the country needed 62 lakh PPEs for health workers and added, more than 50 doctors had tested Covid-19 positive.
Pointing to lack of facility to test PPEs, the Congress said why the National Institute of Virology, Pune, was not prepared to test them. In the absence of such facility, India approves the European standards.
It also asked how the government would increase the number of ventilators and trained technician to apply it. India had only 40 thousand ventilators, it added.
Slamming the government for late convening of meeting of the House floor leaders, Dev said it should have been called "six days ahead of lockdown and not six days before the end of lockdown".
On Sunday, the Health Ministry reported Covid-19 toll at 77 and total number of cases at 3,374.
The number of Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra increased by 26, taking the total from 635 to 661. It has reached 226 in Andhra Pradesh with 34 samples testing positive in the past 12 hours.
In J&K 14 more tested positive for coronavius, taking the total to 106.
Two persons are suspected to have died due to Covid-19 in Pune and Thane on Sunday, but the health authorities have declined to confirm or share details.
Till Saturday, Maharashtra had recorded 32 Covid-19 deaths, with maximum of 22 deaths in Mumbai.
( With inputs from IANS )