Bizarre errors reported in record vaccination numbers on PM's birthday: Report

As India vaccinated 2.5 crore people in a single day to mark Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday on September 17, several questions are being raised over the "milestone" -- including late upload of records and some bizarre errors where vaccine certificates of those dead months ago were received by family members.

"Dear Vidya Sharma, you have successfully been vaccinated with your second dose with Covishield on September 17," read the message received by Ashutosh Sharma, a resident of Madhya Pradesh's Aagar-Malwa district, whose mother died of Covid-19 four months ago.

"I have her death certificate in one hand and her vaccination certificate in another... I think a lot of pressure is being put on the officials, to increase the numbers," Sharma was quoted as saying to NDTV.

Also read: OPINION | Covid-19 vaccination is not PM Narendra Modi’s personal gift

In a similar case, the publication said, Pinky Verma from Aagar, received a message saying that she was vaccinated with the second dose even when she had missed it.

"I think they are intentionally doing this to increase the figures," she told the publication.

Madhya Pradesh Medical Education Minister, Vishwas Sarang, said that such cases are rare and "will be investigated if there is any clerical error".

Also read: Opposition should introspect over their 'irresponsible' remarks about Covid vaccination drive: Nadda

Karnataka had administered the highest number of over 26.9 lakh doses, followed by Bihar with more than 26.6 lakh doses, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. According to a report by Scroll, officials in Bihar alleged that they “were under tremendous pressure to perform”.

Even as large-scale vaccination campaigns were carried out on September 17, a "significant chunk of data uploaded on that day was actually of people vaccinated offline over the previous two days", the publication reported quoting several officials.

Opposition leaders have also alleged that fewer Covid-19 vaccine doses were administered in the last two weeks so that a record could be set on the Prime Minister's birthday. Taking a swipe at the government over the record vaccinations on PM's birthday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi shared a graph of the vaccination trend in the last 10 days showing a decline in inoculations.

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