Rajasthan CM blames politicians for COVID-19 surge; urges PM Modi to talk to states again

On Friday, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot conceded that politicians have to shoulder some of the blame for the spread of COVID-19 across the country. Writing on Twitter, he highlighted the contradiction in politicians asking the people to follow COVID-19 norms and holding election rallies in which lakhs continue to gather. Maintaining that this has been happening since the Bihar Assembly polls, he opined that crowding could have been prevented by organising virtual rallies.

Gehlot stated, "Even judiciary and ECI can not shy away from their responsibility. Despite opposition from the States, the Supreme Court and High courts issued orders for holding Panchayat and local bodies elections. ECI continued announcing elections simply to discharge its duty. Politicians continued aggressive campaigning and the crowd kept on gathering."

Citing that strict measures are being imposed in several places to contain the novel coronavirus spread, he urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to talk take the initiative and talk to all states once again. At present, there are 49,276 active novel coronavirus cases in Rajasthan while 3,35,633 patients have been discharged besides 3041 fatalities. While a total of 91,86,972 persons have been inoculated in Maharashtra so far, 13,08,697 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too. 

COVID-19 vaccination in India

With a huge spurt in the number of daily COVID-19 cases, many states have imposed a night curfew and imposed restrictions on gatherings. While the vaccination is currently open only for those aged above 45 years, the Centre has taken immediate steps to increase the pace of the drive. Apart from COVISHIELD and COVAXIN, the DCGI has now accepted the recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, paving way for the approval of Sputnik V.

In an important announcement on Tuesday, the Union government declared that those vaccines that have been granted emergency approval for restricted use by USFDA, EMA, UK MHRA, PMDA Japan, or which are listed in WHO (Emergency Use Listing) will be granted emergency use approval in India. In place of the local clinical trial requirement, the post-approval bridging clinical trial shall be mandated. Furthermore, the first 100 beneficiaries of such foreign vaccines shall be assessed for 7 days for safety outcomes before it is rolled out for further immunization programme within India. A total of 10,25,95,279 persons have been inoculated in India till now, 1,42,96,035 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too.