Pralhad Joshi says Sonia, Rahul Gandhi 'don't have confidence' in Indian vaccines

Pralhad Joshi, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister and a BJP leader, on Tuesday, June 8, claimed that Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have not been vaccinated because they do not trust Indian vaccines. The Union Minister said, "When we started vaccination in January, Congress leaders raised questions on vaccine efficacy. Now, they are taking the vaccine. As per my knowledge, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi haven't taken vaccines. They don't have confidence in the Indian vaccine."

Pralhad Joshi slams Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi

Joshi's accusation came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared in a national address that a centralized procurement mechanism for COVID-19 vaccines would commence on June 21, with 25% of the procurement going to the private sector and free vaccinations for everyone over the age of 18.

Vaccination drive in India

On the other hand, the Centre has ordered 100 crore COVID-19 vaccinations from several vaccine producers approved in India in order to meet its huge goal. The Serum Institute of India (SII) has placed an order for 25 crore doses of COVISHIELD and 19 crore doses of COVAXIN from Bharat Biotech. The two firms have a total of 44 crore vaccination doses. In addition, the Centre has placed an advance order of 30 crore doses from Biotech-E, which is slated to start supplying in September, bringing the total to 74 crores. The Centre is set to put an order for 22 crore vaccines for the 18-44 age group segment following the launch of the consolidated immunization programme. This brings the total number of medicines ordered by the Centre to almost 100 crores.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, June 9, India reported 92,596 new cases of Coronavirus infection, raising the overall number of cases to 2,90,89,069, said the health ministry. The country reported 2,219 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to numbers updated at 8 a.m. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the virus has claimed the lives of 3,53,528 people throughout the country. India has 1,231,415 active infections as of Wednesday, according to data from the health ministry, accounting for 4.5 per cent of all illnesses reported so far.

Picture Credit: PTI/ANI