On Wednesday, April 7, Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr. Harsh Vardhan organised press conference on the demands for relaxation of ages for Covid-19 vaccination. Union Health Minister targeted the some states on their efforts and plans for tackling covid-19 cases.
Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, “Deplorable attempts by some state governments to distract attention from their failures and spread panic among the people.”
Union Minister further added that I have seen statements made by public representatives in Maharashtra about shortage of vaccines. This is nothing but an attempt to divert attention from Maharashtra government’s repeated failures to control the spread of pandemic.
“Inability of Maharashtra govt to act responsibly is beyond comprehension. To spread panic among the people is to compound the folly further. Vaccine supplies are being monitored on a real-time basis, and State governments are being apprised regularly about it,” Minister further added.
Allegations of vaccine shortage utterly baseless. Throughout last year as Union Health Minister I have been witness to mis-governance and casual approach of Maharashtra Government in battling virus. Their lackadaisical attitude singularly bogged down country’s efforts to fight virus, as said by Union Minister.
He further targeted Maharashtra government by adding, “Performance of Maharashtra govt in terms of vaccinating healthcare & frontline workers is not great. Shocking to see how state Government is putting Maharashtrians in danger by letting people escape institutional quarantine mandate for the sake of their personal Vasuli.”
Dr. Harsh Vardhan also targeted state like Chhattisgarh by adding, “Chhattisgarh Govt refused to use Covaxin despite it being given Emergency Use Authorization by DCGI. Not only this, by its actions, leaders of the state govt have dubious distinction of being perhaps only govt in the world to have incited vaccine hesitancy.”
Minister also added, “we have seen comments by leaders from Chhattisgarh that are intended to spread misinformation and create panic on vaccination. It would be better if the state government focusses its energies on ramping up their health infrastructure rather than on petty politicking.”
Union Health Minister also talks about improvement of public healthcare and asked states like Gujarat, Karnataka and Rajasthan to improve their public Healthcare.
ANI quotes, “Many other states also need to bring their healthcare systems up to the mark. Quality of testing needs to improve in Karnataka, Rajasthan & Gujarat. In Punjab, high case fatality rate needs to be improved by early identification of those needing hospitalization,” as said by Minister.
India recorded over 1.15 lakh new COVID cases in the last 24 hours for first time since the beginning of the pandemic, setting an unprecedented, grim record during the second wave. 630 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. Eight States account for 84.44% of the new deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties of 297. Punjab follows with 61 daily deaths.
