Rahul Gandhi calls COVID-19 vaccine festival 'a sham', slams Centre's handling of pandemic

New Delhi:  Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday attacked the government over the handling of the COVID-19 situation and alleged that it is only indulging in a “sham” of a ‘‘vaccine festival’’. He also alleged that there is no testing, no beds in hospitals, neither ventilators or oxygen and vaccine is also not available. Rahul also took a jibe asking what PM-CARES is doing, as huge donations were given to the fund for handling COVID-19 situation. “There are no tests or beds in hospitals. There are no ventilators or oxygen. The vaccine is also not there. But there is a sham of a festival. PM-CARES?” he asked. His attack came after the government celebrated the ‘‘Tika Utsav’’ (vaccine festival) from April 11 to 14. India saw its highest single-day rise of 2,00,739 COVID-19 infections and 1,038 fatalities pushing the country’s tally of cases to 1,40,74,564 and the total death toll to 1,73,123, according to official data. The total number of active COVID-19 cases in the country were recorded at 14,71,877 cases