Tejashwi slams Nitish govt as Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi appear in vaccine recipient list

Mocking yet another goof-up by the Bihar administration, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Monday, highlighted that some of the recipients of vaccine doses were - Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Chopra. Pulling up the Nitish govt, Yadav pointed out that all the 'recipients' had received three doses to inflate vaccination figures. India has administered 128,79,82,278 doses of which 48,37,06,802 have received two doses.

Tejashwi Yadav: 'Nitish govt inflating vaccination figures'

The Nitish govt faced embarrassment on Monday when the names of Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Chopra & others reportedly appeared in vaccinated & RT-PCR Covid test lists at Karpi, Arwal district. Taking cognizance of the issue, Arwal DM J Priyadarshini said, "I've seen the list. We'll probe the matter & will take action against the culprits".

Bihar govt was previously pulled up by  Patna high court in May flagging irregularities in death figures in Buxar district ordering the government to review COVID deaths. In a 20-day audit undertaken by district-level committees comprising of civil surgeon, additional chief medical officer and a senior medical officer, 3951 new deaths were added. The administration claims that deaths reported at private hospitals, under home isolation, and of post-Covid complications had remained unaccounted for.

India's vaccination gains

The Centre on Friday revealed that India's two in-house vaccine manufacturers - Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech Ltd (BBL) are currently producing at 90%. Answering a written query in Lok Sabha, Union Health MoS Bharti Pawar stated that SII is currently producing 250-275 Million Covishield doses per month, while BBL is producing 50-60 Million Covaxin doses/month. Moreover, she added that Sputnik-V, Biological E Limited, Cadila Healthcare Limited have been allowed to manufacture COVID vaccines in India.

The Centre also revealed that a total of 102.38 crore doses (96% of the total doses) of COVID-19 Vaccines have been administered free of cost at Government CVCs while only 4.08 crore doses (4% of the total doses) were administered at Private CVCs. As of date, 11,43,406 doses of Sputnik-V have been given, while 14,12,60,839 doses of Covaxin have been administered. Covishield - which amounts to maximum doses - has totalled 114,13,98,905 doses.

India started inoculating its citizens in a phased manner from January 16, prioritising healthcare workers first. With two indigenous vaccines (Covishield & Covaxin), India's vaccine basket has now expanded to six jabs -  Covishield, Covaxin, Sputnik V, Moderna vaccine, J&J's Janssen vaccine and Zydus Cadila's ZyCOV-D with Gennova's mRNA vaccine, Biological E's Corbevax, Covaxin's nasal vaccine and Novovax's Covovax in the pipeline. India has also allowed clinical trials to innoculate children and is mulling to administer booster doses to vulnerable population above 60 years.