PM Modi has surrendered and is refusing to fight the pandemic, Rahul Gandhi said. (File photo)

New Delhi:

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday renewed his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Coronavirus outbreak which has affected over five lakh people in the country. The government has no plan to defeat the pandemic and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has “surrendered” as he refuses to fight coronavirus, Mr Gandhi tweeted today.

“COVID-19 is spreading rapidly into new parts of the country. GOI (Government of India) has no plan to defeat it. PM is silent. He has surrendered and is refusing to fight the pandemic,” he tweeted attaching a news report by The Print, which claimed that neither the government nor the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the nodal body in the fight against coronavirus, have not held a meeting in over two weeks.

The last meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM), headed by Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, was held on 9 June, The Print reported, adding that the ICMR last met more than two weeks ago.

The Congress leader has targeted the government in almost daily posts over its handling of the virus crisis. In one of the posts, Mr Gandhi had quoted Einstein to say: “The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is arrogance”.

Mr Gandhi’s latest attack came on a day India’s COVID-19 tally raced past five lakh with the highest single-day surge of 18,552 cases. It took just 149 days to cross the five-lakh mark; the infections had crossed the four lakh figure six days ago.  

The total casualties due to the virus has crossed the 15,000-mark with 384 COVID-19 deaths reported in the past 24 hours. The number of active cases stands at 1,97,387, while 2,95,880 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, according to the updated figure at 8 AM.

According to the ICMR, cumulative total of 79,96,707 samples have been tested up to June 26 with 2,20,479 samples being tested on Friday, the highest in a day since the beginning of the pandemic.

Mr Gandhi has been attacking the government ever since a nationwide lockdown was announced in March to break the chain of transmission.

The Congress MP from Kerala’s Wayanad has also held weekly conversations with experts over the last two months on the repercussions of the lockdown and its impact on the economy, badly hit by the pandemic.

India has the fourth-highest number of coronavirus cases among 10 nations worst-hit by coronavirus. The coronavirus pandemic has killed over 4.89 lakh people globally since it was first detected in China in December last year. Over 96.04 lakh people have been infected with the highly contagious virus globally.