Government being overconfident about COVID, it's not over yet: Rahul Gandhi

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused the Centre of being "grossly" negligent and overconfident about the handling of the coronavirus situation, saying the pandemic was not over yet.

The comments came after South African and Brazilian variants of the pathogen were reported to have entered India.

"GOI is being grossly negligent and over confident about Covid-19. It's not over yet," Gandhi tweeted.

For the first time in India, four people were detected with the South Africa variant of SARS-CoV-2 and one tested positive for the Brazil variant in the country, the health minister has said.

In India, the South Africa strain has been detected in four returnees, one from Angola, one from Tanzania and two from South Africa in January, ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava said.

With 11,610 fresh cases, India's COVID-19 tally has climbed to 1,09,37,320 on Wednesday, while the number of recoveries has surged to 1,06,44,858, the ministry said.

The death has gone up to 1,55,913 in the country with 100 more fatalities reported in a 24-hour period, as per the ministry's data.