Coronavirus: Cong attacks Goa govt for invoking Epidemic Act

The Goa Congress on Sunday attacked the BJP government in the state for invoking the "draconian" Epidemic Diseases Act to tackle the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar said the Pramod Sawant government has been slow in its response to the situation and wasted two months while the virus was spreading since being detected in Wuhan in China in December.

"Sawant has invoked the draconian Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 in Goa. There is no explanation why this has been done. Sawant has not even explained why Goa was invoking this Act when it does not have facilities to test the virus," Chodankar said.

The Epidemic Diseases Act gives wide-ranging powers to officials to enforce measures, including that of lockdown and quarantine, required to tackle an outbreak.

He said the Centre chose 51 laboratories for coronavirus testing but none of them are in Goa. He also said the government has not issued any advisory to private practitioners on the coronavirus outbreak and this showed its "no serious attitude".