Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was on Thursday discharged from the trauma centre of the All India Institute Of Medical Sciences in New Delhi after recovering from the coronavirus, ANI reported. The 88-year-old Congress leader was hospitalised on April 19, soon after he tested positive for the infection.
Leaders across party lines had wished him a quick recovery. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had said that Singh was in a stable condition and being given best possible care.
Before his hospitalisation, Singh wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and offered several suggestions to handle the coronavirus crisis. He had said that ramping up India’s vaccination programme was crucial to tackle the second wave, which has led to record number of coronavirus cases and deaths.
The health minister, however, dismissed the suggestions and said that Singh’s own party, the Congress, should first follow his advice. Vardhan also blamed Congress leaders’ “irresponsible public pronouncements” for the below-national average vaccination coverage in some of the states ruled by the party.
The second wave has led to at least lakhs of people testing positive in India for the infection in the past week, overwhelming hospitals and crematoriums. Many countries have offered to help India as social media is awash with frantic pleas for help, with people desperately seeking help to find oxygen cylinders, crucial medicines and beds in hospitals.
In the past 24 hours, India recorded 3,79,257 new coronavirus cases, the largest single-day total in the world, taking the country’s total since the pandemic broke out in January 2020 to 1,83,76,524. A further 3,645, the highest so far, took the toll to 2,04,832.
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