'Test more & then treat' should be our mantra: Priyanka on COVID-19

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday, 6 April asked people to raise their voice for “more and more testing”, saying it is the only way to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

She said the mantra should be to test as much as possible and then treat the infected people.

"The only way to prevent infection of coronavirus is through more and more testing. Only then can we treat the infected person. Test as much as possible and treat - this should be our mantra. My request to all of you is - raise your voice for more testing," she said in a tweet in Hindi, using hashtag “TestMoreSaveIndia”.

कोरोना वाइरस के संक्रमण को रोकने का एकमात्र रास्ता ज्यादा से ज्यादा टेस्टिंग है। तभी हम संक्रमित व्यक्ति का ट्रीटमेंट कर सकते हैं।

ज्यादा से ज्यादा टेस्ट करो, ट्रीट करो-यही हमारा मंत्र होना चाहिए।

आप सबसे मेरी गुज़ारिश है-ज्यादा टेस्टिंग के लिए आवाज उठाइए।#TestMoreSaveIndia pic.twitter.com/r8NoZZV6Xu

— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) April 6, 2020

In a video message, she said, “If testing is not exponentially ramped up, we will be wasting precious time in the fight to save lives. We just cannot afford even a single day.”

“Please raise your voice in whichever way you can by posting on social media or otherwise to convince our government to massively increase testing now. The lives of millions of people depend on it,” she said.

Gandhi said as the country progresses to the second half of the coronavirus lockdown, it is very important for all of us to understand how crucial it is for India to increase its rate of testing.

She said testing enables us to determine who has coronavirus, it also gives us extremely valuable information about the severity of the disease, disease clusters and areas that need to be immediately isolated.

She said while Italy failed to conduct a large number of tests, South Korea tested thousands of people that helped it contain the virus.

“Unfortunately, data shows the rate of testing in our country is nowhere near what it should be,” she said.

As all of you know reports about community transmission of the virus have now started coming in the next two weeks will determine our future, the Congress leader said.

The Congress has been calling for more testing, saying India's testing has been the lowest in the world, going by its population.