A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced booster shots for frontline workers and those with co-morbidities, the Congress pointed out that with just five days left for the year to end, the government is way off the mark from its submission to the Supreme Court where it had claimed that all people above the age of 18 would get both doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
Thirty-five per cent of the country’s population above the age of 18 has not got the second dose of vaccine, Congress General Secretary (Communication) Randeep Surjewala pointed out on Sunday. “According to the facts released by the government, 11.45 crore people above the age of 18 have not received even a single dose of corona vaccine,” Mr. Surjewala said. There were another 22 lakh health care and frontline workers who had not received the second dose.
The other “harsh reality” was that “where are the vaccine doses”, and as per the Modi government, they had availability of 17.74 crore doses only, he said.
Mr. Surjewala said the Prime Minister’s announcement on Saturday would mean that 25.69 crore people would be entitled to 35.7 crore more vaccine doses. So the total need of vaccine doses was over 90 crore and asked “where are the vaccines”. India’s capacity was to produce 16.8 crore vaccine doses per month, he said.
“So, how and by when, till which date, will all these Indians be administered these vaccines,” he asked.
The Modi government had failed on all accounts on handling the pandemic, Mr. Surjewala said. “The need of the hour is that the Prime Minister follows the ‘raj dharma’, adopt a clear vaccine policy, provide vaccine to the children in the age group of 5 to 15 and suggest a way to save the country from the danger of the Omicron virus,” he said.
Mr. Surjewala also attacked the Prime Minister over holding of public rallies in Uttar Pradesh. He alleged doublespeak by Mr. Modi, saying that while in marriages the cap was on 200 visitors but the BJP’s own rallies were going on without any monitoring.
“Why is it that the government is oblivious and ignorant, bordering on criminal negligence, to the threat of the Omicron virus. We know that it doubles between 1.5 and 3 days, it escapes existing antibodies, we know that it changes protein spikes, it is fastest communicable, it will lead to large scale massive hospitalisation,” he said.
As many as 422 Omicron cases have been detected across 17 States and Union Territories so far and 130 of them have recovered or migrated, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday.
