New Delhi: Asserting the allegations relating to scarcity of Covid-19 vaccines are totally baseless, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday alleged there are “deplorable attempts by some state governments to distract attention from their failures and spread panic among the people”.
Coming down closely on Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA authorities, Vardhan mentioned the statements made by public representatives in Maharashtra about scarcity of vaccines is nothing however an try and divert consideration from repeated failures to manage the unfold of pandemic.
“The inability of Maharashtra Government 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. Allegations of vaccine shortage are utterly baseless,” he added.
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Asserting that he has been a witness all through the final 12 months to the misgovernance and utter informal method of the Maharashtra Government in battling the virus, he mentioned the “lackadaisical attitude of the state government has singularly bogged down the entire country’s efforts to fight the virus”.
The Health Minister mentioned the Centre has repeatedly counselled the Maharashtra authorities and made them out there all assets in addition to despatched central groups for assist.
“However, the lack of efforts of the part of the state government is now clearly visible and come to haunt us all,” he added.
Stating Maharashtra not solely has the very best instances and deaths within the nation but additionally has one of many highest take a look at positivity charges on the earth, Vardhan mentioned “their testing is not up to the mark and their contact tracing leaves a lot to be desired”.
Vardhan mentioned Maharashtra’s efficiency can also be not nice by way of vaccinating healthcare and frontline employees.
“It is shocking to see how the state government is putting Maharashtrians in danger by letting people escape institutional quarantine mandate for the sake of their personal ‘vasuli’. Overall, as the state has lurched from one crisis to another, it seems as if the state leadership is happily sleeping at the wheels,” he added.
The Health Minister additional mentioned the Maharashtra Government must do much more to manage the pandemic and the Centre will assist them in all doable methods. “But focusing all their energies on playing politics and spreading lies to create panic is not going to help the people of Maharashtra,” he added.
The Union Minister additionally took the Chhattisgarh Government to process over the “regular comments” made by the state leaders which can be supposed to unfold misinformation and panic on vaccination.
“I would like to humbly state that it would be better if the state government focuses its energies on ramping up their health infrastructure rather than on petty politicking,” he added.
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Highlighting that Chhattisgarh has seen disproportionately larger variety of deaths within the final two to a few weeks, Vardhan mentioned “their testing remains heavily dependent on rapid antigen tests which is not a wise strategy”.
Vardhan additional mentioned the state authorities in truth refused to make use of Covaxin regardless of it being given Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the Drug Controller of India.
“The leaders of the state government have the dubious distinction of being perhaps the only government in the word to have incited vaccine hesitancy,” he added.
Vardhan additional mentioned many different states additionally must convey their healthcare programs on top of things.
“For example, quality of testing needs to improve in Karnataka, Rajasthan and Gujarat. In Punjab, high Case Fatality Rate needs to be improved by early identification of those needing hospitalization. Mask-wearing and social distancing compliance are slack in a large number of states. There is a lot that needs to be done and we must do it all with speed and at scale,” he added.
