Gandhinagar, Mar 23 (IANS): The Gujarat government on Wednesday admitted in the state Assembly that it waited for more than one-and-a-half-months to buy Covid-19 essential kits after the Centre's February 20, 2020 notification regarding it.

Health Minister Rishikesh Patel said that the state government first issued a notification regarding the pandemic on April 7, 2020, and tenders to purchase RT-PCR kits were floated on April 17, 2020, onwards.

Patel was responding to the allegation levelled by the Anklav MLA, Amit Chavda on when was the first notification issued for the pandemic.

"The government was busy handling the Trump event and had ignored the health priority of the people. When were the RT-PCR purchase orders placed by the state government? What was the preparedness regarding the virus management in terms of purchasing PPE kits, hospital infrastructure and other materials? The health emergency was not declared when the Namaste Trump event was celebrated, but it was declared much later," Chavda alleged.

Responding to him the health minister said Corona was not spread by the Trump event, but by China. "Other countries, where Trump did not visit, too had the virus. At the time when a health emergency was declared, things were new and the government was tackling the situation as per its experience. Even for medical equipment and necessary medicines, it needed time to prepare "proper logistic chain," added Patel.