Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who has been constantly criticising the Centre over not conducting enough COVID-19 tests, on Tuesday said mass testing is the key to fighting Coronavirus and added that at present, “India is nowhere in the game.”

In a tweet, Gandhi claimed India delayed the purchase of testing kits and is now critically short of them.

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“With just 149 tests per million Indians, we are now in the company of Laos (157), Niger (182) and Honduras (162),” he said.

The assertion comes as Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said the state government hasn’t received the rapid testing kits from the Centre yet, and that there is “great need for them”.

Party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi, too, criticized the government for the low rate of testing, alleging that the reports of two persons came only after they had died.

“I have written to the UP Chief Minister to expand the testing facility,” Priyanka said.

The Congress has said that from February 1 till April 13, only 217,553 tests have been conducted, which means 3,021 tests per day and asked the government to enhance testing.

Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said that 2,31,902 samples have been tested for Coronavirus so far.

Earlier this month, Rahul Gandhi had criticised the Central government over its response to the Coronavirus crisis saying the country is not testing enough people for the virus.

Taking to Twitter, Rahul Gandhi said, “India is simply not testing enough to fight the #Covid19 virus. Making people clap & shining torches in the sky isn’t going to solve the problem (sic).”

Along with the Tweet, Gandhi shared a graphic, according to which, India is conducting 29 tests per million population, compared to 7,622 tests by South Korea. Italy, most severely affected by the Coronavirus, is conducting 7,122 tests while Germany is conducting 5,822 tests per million population. Pakistan, on the other hand, is conducting 67 tests and Sri Lanka is conducting 97 tests per million population, which is still more than India’s 29.

The total number of cases in India is 10,363, according to the data published by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday. Of these 8,988 are active cases of COVID-19, 1,035 individuals have recovered and discharged, one person migrated to another country and 339 people succumbed to the disease.