Rahul Gandhi, via a digital press conference on Thursday, opined that lockdown is not the solution to COVID-19. "Lockdown is like a pause button, it's in no way a solution to Coronavirus. When we come out of lockdown, the virus will start its work again. So, it's important that we have a strategy to come out of lockdown," the former Congress President said.

He is in favour of States and districts being empowered to fight COVID-19. "Our strength to fight COVID-19 is at State and district level. Success in Wayanad in Kerala has been due to district level machinery. So I suggest that fight against COVID should not be top-down but bottom-up. Prime Minister should empower States," Rahul observed.

He wants the testing rate to go up from 199 per million to 350 per district.

Rahul further demanded that a food safety net must be created. "Give ration to the non-ration card holding poor too. Give money to the poorest 20% Indians as envisioned by our NYAY scheme. The PM can choose not to call it NYAY if he wants," he added.