New Delhi, May 1 (IANS): Amid the nationwide lockdown imposed to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus, CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Friday said that patients suffering from various diseases were suffering across the country.

During his address to party supporters on the Labour Day, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader pointed out that 3 lakh persons suffering from diabetes and another one lakh cancer patients were not getting medical treatment due to the lockdown. There were three lakh children whose vaccination could not be completed, he added.

Yechury said that the country's healthcare system needed to be geared up in December last when coronavirus pandemic was still to spread far and wide.

As for the blame on Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi contributing to spike in crona cases in India, he questioned who all allowed attendees to come into India from abroad.

He said that testing for coronavirus in India was only 60 per lakh of population, one of the lowest in the world. Healthcare professionals were also facing shortage of personal protection equipment, Yechury claimed.

Pointing towards the discrimination in society, the left leader said coronavirus may not discriminate between humans but the social system certainly does.