Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao Monday alleged the media was spreading misinformation about Covid-19 and causing panic among people, and went on to say he had recovered from the disease by taking paracetamol and an antibiotic.
KCR, as he is popularly known, had tested positive for the disease in April. According to him, he had recovered in a week by just taking the two drugs.
Speaking at an event in Warangal district, KCR said, “Don’t know who is spreading [misinformation] about these Black Fungus or Yellow Fungus. If it’s a TV channel or paper or whatever … don’t know if the fungus is alive or dead, but people are dying after listening to all these. These TV people, I am telling you, they will be cursed,” KCR said in Telugu.
The CM, who was in Warangal to lay the foundation stone for a super speciality hospital, blamed the media and said it was acting against its social responsibility by spreading misinformation.
KCR’s comments came days after his government lifted the lockdown in the state.
On 21 June, Telangana had reported 1,197 new cases for that day. A month ago, the daily positive cases were 3,464.
Also read: Telangana student spends 11 days on a tree — he had nowhere else to isolate during Covid
The story of a ‘mantrik’ & cholera
At the event, KCR talked about his experience with Covid, indicating that the media was inflating the sense of danger Covid presented.
“When I got Covid, I asked the doctor if they could find out what the virus was all about. He said no, and then I asked him what about medicines [to use]. He said it is trial and error. Doctor told me [that] only two tablets [need] to be taken — one is paracetamol called ‘Dolo’, to control the body temperature, and one is an antibiotic, which suits the body. I only took two medicines … [doctor] gave me another medicine, Vitamin ‘D’, which is to be taken weekly, but I recovered in a week. For such a thing, they [media] are scaring people, so much fear …. Who is benefitting from this useless sensationalism?” he said.
He then went on to tell the audience the fable of a mantrik (sorcerer) who was called in by a king to tackle a cholera outbreak, drawing parallels to how fear was making the pandemic crisis worse, according to him.
“When the disease and the mantrik came face to face, he asked the disease why it killed 500 people, to which it replied that it killed just 50 people … the rest of them died due to panic and fear. So, it’s like we don’t know who died due to the disease (Covid) and who died otherwise. It is very sad, the media is really spreading misinformation,” he said.
On talk about children possibly being infected in the next wave, the CM commented: “Did Covid tell them [the media] that it was going to infect children next?”
On Telangana’s healthcare infrastructure, KCR commented that the media was misrepresenting the ground situation.
“Even in normal situations, are there any empty beds in government hospitals? Doctors never deny treatment [to patients] because they know only the poor go to government hospitals. So, even if there are no beds, they make them sleep on a mattress for the time being and give treatment. What do these people [the media] do? They click a photo and write that a patient has been made to sleep on the floor at government hospitals,” he said.
To ensure that the state has world-class medical facilities, KCR added that a team of ministers and MLAs would be flying to Canada to see how its health infrastructure runs and replicate the system in Telangana.
Reopening Telangana
After nearly a month of imposing restrictions, the KCR government Sunday completely lifted the lockdown, citing a fall in the state’s positivity rate. The government even announced educational institutions would reopen from 1 July, allowing students to attend classes physically.
KCR said the decision was not taken lightly, and noted that half the state’s districts had “no Corona” and the positivity rate was below 2 per cent according to the latest report. He further said there may not be a spread of the virus after unlocking since health officials told him there had been no major spread when lockdown had been relaxed.
(Edited by Manasa Mohan)
Also read: How KCR built his ‘Tirumala’ dream in Telangana — Rs 1,200 cr & non-stop work through Covid