Pune: Former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis blamed the state government for its failure to control the coronavirus outbreak in the state. " The state has the capacity to conduct 38000 tests every day, but it doing only 14000 tests daily. The state government is deliberately testing less, in order to keep the COVID-patient count low. It has neglected the Pune city entirely," Fadnavis alleged.

Fadnavis made this allegation in a press conference after he visited the Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial (YCM) hospital in Pimpri-Chinchwad and Dr Naidu Hospital and Sassoon Hospital in Pune city.

Fadnavis said, "The central team which is monitoring situation in the state has advised increasing the number of tests. The state government is however not implementing it. In Mumbai, if we test 4000 persons, then out of 1500 are found to be COVID-positive. If Delhi has increased the number of daily tests, then why Mumbai is doing it less. The state has the capacity to test 38000 persons every day, but it is testing only 14000. This is an attempt to hide and downplay the numbers. We have to stay alert and make sufficient arrangement considering the worse situation. During the monsoon, the number of cases might increase and we have to be prepared for it."

"The state government should also act against private hospitals which are overcharging patients. Some hospitals have billed over one and half lakh to patients. This should stop immediately," Fadnavis stated.

Fadnavis applauded the efforts of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). The dashboard prepared by PMC is a good initiative to track the availability of beds and the number of patients. It will be useful to manage the health services effectively