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Updated May 30th, 2021 at 00:26 IST

Health ministry directs pvt hospitals to follow norms after AAP alleges COVID vaccine scam

Amid the pandemic, The Health Ministry on Saturday wrote a letter to states & UTs and urged the private hospitals to follow guidelines for COVID vaccination

Reported by: Gargi Rohatgi
PTI
PTI | Image:self
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Shortly after Aam Admi Party (AAP) launched an offensive against the Centre, accusing it of profiteering from the crunch of anti-COVID jabs, the Health Ministry on Saturday wrote a letter to States and Union territories (UTs) on some private hospital giving package for COVID vaccination in collaboration with some hotels.Such packages are against the guidelines issued for the National COVID Vaccination Program, the Minister added. 

Health Ministry writes to States & UTs

While stating that it has come to its notice that some private hospitals are giving packages for COVID vaccination, the Health Ministry said as per COVID vaccination guidelines, there are only 4 options available for carrying out inoculation. These 4 options are the government's COVID vaccination centre, private COVID vaccination centre run by a private hospital, workplace vaccination centre at government and private companies and near to home COVID vaccination centres for elderly and differently-abled people. 

Read the full letter here:

AAP alleges COVID-19 vaccine scam as hotel provides vaccination package

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has launched an offensive against the Central government, accusing it of profiteering from the crunch of anti-COVID jabs. Sharing a hotel advertisement, which has allegedly offered a vaccination package, several AAP leaders attacked the Centre, claiming a 'vaccination scam' as private parties pilot creative COVID-19 vaccine packages at a time when there is a scarcity at government centres across the country. However, the planned campaign against the Centre by AAP leaders failed to note that the government had liberalised the COVID-19 vaccination strategy, allowing private parties to procure the jabs as well. 

Hotels providing Vaccination Package?

The 'Vaccination Package' pamphlet carrying the logo of Radisson Hotel Group, which has now gone viral on social media, offers customers a stay at the Radisson Hotel's Hitec City venture along with a COVID-19 vaccine by 'experts from a renowned hospital'. Pegged at Rs 2999, the viral 'Vaccination Package' pamphlet lists breakfast & dinner, clinical consultation and Wi-Fi as the offerings.

Meanwhile, the Radisson Hotel Group has clarified that it is not running the 'vaccination package' at a group level but instead it is a unit-level activity introduced by the Hi Tec City franchise, which is managed by Sarovar. 

"We would like to clarify that Radisson Hotel Group is not running any such offers at a group level. This is the localised activity by the hotel, which is a franchised unit and managed by another operator," the Radisson Hotel Group said in an official statement to Republic Media Network. 

Sharing the hotel's pamphlet, AAP national spokesperson Raghav Chadha tweeted that the Central government has ensured 'no shortage of vaccines' in the private sectors while state government-run vaccination centres which provide free doses are shut due to the non-availability of vaccines. The same pamphlet was shared by several AAP leaders with a common hashtag #VaccinationGhotala. 

COVID-19 situation in India

India has so far recorded over 2,77,29,247 new cases, out of which 2,51,78,011 have successfully recovered and 3,22,512 have died. As per the latest reports from MoHFW, in the past 24 hours, 1,73,790 new cases, 2,84,601 fresh recoveries and 3,617 deaths have been reported. Currently, the total number of active cases in the country is 22,28,724. 

(Image: PTI)

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Published May 30th, 2021 at 00:25 IST

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