Vaccine Availability: Gehlot Accuses Union Health Minister Of Making False Statements

Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday accused Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan of making false statements with respect to the availability of Covid vaccine in the country, and said the Central government should have officially issued an advisory stating that it will take some more time for the vaccines to be available.

This would have prevented the confusion among the people and would have instilled confidence in them to go for vaccination in large numbers, Gehlot said.

“I did not expect Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan to make a false statement like ‘adequate vaccine is available in the states’. It is totally wrong for the Health Minister to accuse the states of mismanagement. Following the guidelines of the Central government, the Rajasthan government worked hard to increase the speed of vaccination to 5.81 lakh vaccines per day and with these numbers, it reached the first position in the country,” the Chief Minister said.

“The Central government had allowed 10 per cent vaccine malfunction, but in Rajasthan the percentage of vaccine wastage is only 7 per cent. The state recorded the highest vaccination in the entire country. We encouraged the people to get vaccinated and they have come forward in large numbers,” Gehlot said.

“But the Central government has failed to provide a regular supply of vaccines to Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Assam due to which many vaccine centres in these states had to close down. There was no harm in accepting that the availability of vaccine in the country is low and the state governments should chalk out a programme of vaccination accordingly,” he added.

The Chief Minister further said, “I also believe that instead of sharing misinformation, the Central government should have officially issued anadvisory saying that it will take some time for the vaccines to become available. I hope that the Union minister will speak out the truth in front of the common people instead of making false statements about Corona infection and vaccination.”

(IANS)