Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the Covid outbreak was “testing our patience” and ability to “endure misery” but spoke not a word on the oxygen crisis that has claimed dozens of lives in the country.
Rather unusually, his monthly radio address,
Mann Ki Baat, devoted most of its time to carrying Modi’s conversations with healthcare workers who appeared to play down the outbreak’s severity and the shortage of key medicines like remdesivir, and painted a rosy picture of good treatment and high recoveries.
Several high courts, including Delhi High Court, have over the past few days expressed concern at the poor Covid management by the central and state governments, and public health experts have blamed the crisis partly on the Centre’s lack of preparedness and planning.