India to be fully COVID vaccinated in 2021: Javadekar tells Rahul to redirect his concerns

With India continuing to ramp up vaccine production and procurement, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Friday announced that the country will be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of December this year. Hitting out at former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who held a press conference just hours earlier criticising the Centre's COVID-19 management, Javadekar claimed that the vaccination process is in a 'mess' in Congress-ruled states. The BJP leader also took a dig at the Wayanad MP, as he said that the press briefing by Rahul Gandhi was as per the 'toolkit' script, thereby proving that the contentious document was created by Congress. 

"India's vaccination will be completed before 2021. If Rahul ji was concerned about the vaccine, then he should pay attention to Congress-ruled states... there is a mess in vaccination. They are not taking the quota given to them for 18-44-year-old beneficiaries from May 1," Javadekar said on Friday. 

Downplaying Rahul Gandhi's briefing in which he claimed that the Centre had no vaccination strategy, Javadekar highlighted that over 20 crore doses of the vaccine had been administered so far, making India second in the world to do so and added that the vaccination is set to see a big jump from August onwards. 

Javadekar also pointed out that while India indigenously developed a COVID-19 vaccine, Congress continued to question its efficacy despite Prime Minister putting the doubts to rest by opting for the Indian-made COVID vaccine. Noting that Gandhi had stressed the importance of vaccination, he said this is what the government has been saying and working on from the beginning and cited the production of two vaccines in India.

"Looking at your (Rahul Gandhi's) statement, one thing has been confirmed - the toolkit is made by you. The kind of language, logic and fear you tried to spread is part of the same strategy," the BJP leader said.

Moreover, he reminded Gandhi that it was Congress leaders who promoted hesitancy about COVAXIN at the outset. The Union Minister reiterated that over 216 crore doses of vaccines including COVISHIELD (75 crore doses), COVAXIN (55 crore doses), Bio E Sub Vaccine (30 crore doses), Zydus Cadila DNA vaccine (5 crore doses), SII-Novavax (20 crore doses), BB Nasal Vaccine (10 crore doses), Genova mRNA vaccine (6 crore doses) and Sputnik V (15.6 crore doses) will be available by the end of 2021. Escalating his attack, Javadekar also asked the Wayanad MP to examine the dire vaccination situation in Congress-ruled states.

Rahul Gandhi asks Centre to evolve vaccine strategy 

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday asked the government to evolve a COVID-19 vaccine strategy for the entire population, warning of multiple waves of the virus at the current rate of vaccination.
 Noting that India was the vaccine capital of the world and it was possible to escalate the inoculation drive, Gandhi said it was time for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be a leader and show that he can organise vaccines for everyone.

"In my understanding, going by the current rate of vaccination guarantees the third wave of the virus. If vaccination was 50-60 per cent you would not have a third wave and certainly not the fourth," he told a press conference. He said going by today's pace of vaccinations, the entire inoculation exercise will be completed by May 2024 and several waves of COVID will come.

India To Get Vaccinations On-demand By August

While India faces an acute shortage of COVID-19 vaccines, sources have said that from August onwards, citizens of the country would not have to register in advance or stand in long queues, and would simply be able to go and get vaccinated. This is on account of the country aiming to have 8-10 vaccine companies at its disposal by August and to manufacture over 300 crore vaccine doses by the end of the year, a figure that is double the country population. Union Health Ministry has announced that the 216 crore doses of COVID vaccines would be manufactured in India between August to December 2021, while Niti Aayog Member Dr VK Paul later informed that the number is likely to reach 300 crore doses by the first quarter of 2022.