Mumbai: Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi in a letter to Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has urged to rope in private hospitals in the immunization drive and also consider opening up of more mobile vaccination centers and plug the issues faced on CoWin app. Also, she has appealed to de-regularize the sale of vaccines and cap the cost of the same to ensure that there is no heavy cost for the citizens to bear or fear of hoarding.
Chaturvedi’s letter coincided with the 1,01,88,007 COVID 19 vaccine doses administered across India.
‘’It would be unfair to the country that we do not use our own strength and leverage all our available resources to help the society rid itself of the virus,’’ said Chaturvedi. She emphasized the need for the availability and accessibility of the vaccines especially when India is once again seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases and the various strains of the virus have also been detected.
She said as per the Health Ministry data, COVID-19 vaccine supplies are underutilized. ‘’In fact, the data of vaccine supplies shows that only 31.45% of Covishield and 11.75% Covaxin have been administered to frontline workers. If this is the case then shouldn’t we reconsider our policy of regulating the availability of vaccines?’’ she asked.
Chaturvedi said the CoWin App has been facing glitches with data. Also, there are loopholes that exist for those who have access to networks and money to get vaccine shots on priority, while those who are from the weaker section of society suffer the consequences of such government regulations. ‘’Many countries have benefited from the Vaccine Maitri initiative by the Ministry of External Affairs, isn’t it high time Indians get the same benefits of having a vaccine easily available for them?’’ she asked.
She pointed out that all states are administering it to frontline workers and many have started the second round of dosage too. ‘’However, our population is large and the fear of another wave that can have a tremendous impact on our economy hence it becomes our responsibility to ensure rapid voluntary vaccination for senior citizens with co-morbidities and the rest on a mass scale so that life resumes to safety sooner than later,’’ she noted.
