Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said the government concentrated on exporting vaccine, and allowed a shortage to be created in India
The police punishes commuters for flouting lockdown norms imposed by authorities to curb the surge in cases in Jabalpur on Saturday. Pic/PTI
Amid the surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in the country, Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi on Saturday hit out at the Centre and said it has “mismanaged the situation”, exported vaccine and allowed a shortage to be created in India.
Gandhi’s remarks came during a meeting of Congress-ruled states and party’s ministers from alliance states to review the efforts to fight COVID-19 including, availability of vaccines, access to medicines and ventilators. Former party chief Rahul Gandhi also attended the meet.
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Sonia Gandhi said, “COVID-19 is surging and as the principal Opposition party, it is our responsibility to raise issues and push the government to move away from PR tactics and act in the interest of the people.”
India on Saturday recorded over 1.45 lakh fresh cases and 794 deaths in the last 24 hours. Several states have red flagged the government over the shortage of vaccines.
‘Vaccine for five days only’
With Punjab left with only five days of supply (5.7 lakh vaccine doses) at the current levels of vaccinating 85,000-90,000 persons a day, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has urged the Centre to share the schedule for supply of vaccines with the states over the next quarter based on their confirmed supply orders.
Hoping that the Centre would send fresh batches of vaccine supply soon, the Chief Minister said if the state is able to meet its target of two lakh vaccines a day, then its current supplies will last only three days. He said he had written to the Prime Minister and the Union Health Minister to give confirmed supply schedules.
Despite being a slow-starter in vaccination, Punjab has vaccinated more than 16 lakh persons, at an average of around 85,000-90,000 per day, he said during a video conference convened by Gandhi to discuss the COVID-19 situation.
Captain Amarinder said people in Punjab were still not coming out in large numbers for the vaccination due to the massive anger prevailing against the government of India on the issue of farm laws.
Since Punjab’s majority population belongs to the agriculture community, even the common man is affected by the farmers’ agitation, he said, adding “this anger is impacting the vaccination drive.”
Seven boxers positive
With seven more top boxers testing positive for COVID-19 at Patiala’s National Institute of Sports (NIS), the number of positive cases in boxing has gone up to 17.
A fortnight ago, 10 boxers, including men’s chief coach CA Kuttappa, contracted the virus and were isolated. “[It] might impact India’s preparation for next month’s Asian Boxing Championships to be held at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Indoor Sports Complex (IG Stadium),” a national-level boxing coach said.
‘Andhra needs 25L vaccines’
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to supply 25 lakh more vaccine doses. He highlighted that the southern state has only two lakh vaccine doses currently and another two lakh doses were expected to arrive on Friday.
1,32,05,926
Total number of cases in the country as of Saturday
1,68,436
Total no. of deaths due to the virus in India
1,19,90,859
Patients Recovered and discharged in India as of Saturday
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