Don't mislead on Covid-19 vaccines: Ashok Gehlot tells Harshvardhan

The Centre and the state governments continued to bicker over the availability of vaccines with Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot contesting Union Health Minister Harshvardhan’s accusation of states not managing the vaccination drive efficiently.

Gehlot said the Union Health Minister should have issued an advisory on the availability of vaccines instead of resorting to misleading statements on adequate stocks of the anti-Covid shots.

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“I never expected the Union Health Minister to make a completely untrue statement that ‘states have adequate stocks of vaccines’. It was wrong on the part of the health minister to accuse state governments of mismanagement,” Gehlot said.

On Wednesday, the Health Minister had said there was no dearth of Covid-19 vaccines in the country and put the onus on state governments of making vaccines available to vaccination centres across the state. His remarks came amid reports that Maharashtra and Rajasthan had to shut down vaccination centres due to a shortage of vaccines.

Gehlot accused the Centre of having failed to maintain a regular supply of vaccines to states such as Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Assam forcing the states to shut down vaccination centres.

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“There is no harm in admitting that the availability of vaccines in the country was low and states should plan the vaccination drive accordingly,” Gehlot said.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh demanded that the Centre allow vaccination in the age group under 45 years in areas reporting more cases of Covid-19 as the UK variant of the virus was infecting younger people more.