Centre has no Covid-19 vaccine roadmap for poor, says Congress after all-party meet

In an all-party meet on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India’s vaccination programme against Covid-19 would begin as soon as scientists engaged in developing vaccines give a go-ahead. However, the Congress alleged that the government has no roadmap for the poor population of the country, or people who are not frontline workers.

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the the government is reiterating that those who need vaccination will get vaccine. “But who’s going to decide this? No plan was discussed how the vaccine will be given to the poor,” Chowdhury said.

This comes amid confusion over how many people the government plans to vaccinate. Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan has recently said that the government never spoke about vaccinating the entire country. Director-general of Indian Council of Medical Research Balram Bhargava also said that if a critical mass of people is identified and vaccinated that helps break the virus transmission, then there will be no need to vaccinate the entire population.

According to centre’s plan, initially 30 crore frontline workers will be vaccinated against the Covid-19. “Priority in this (vaccination) will be given to the healthcare workers involved in treating Covid-19 patients, frontline workers and old people suffering from serious conditions,” PM Modi said during Friday’s meeting.

“Our scientists are very confident of succeeding in their endeavour of developing a vaccine against Covid-19. There are names of vaccines from different countries doing the rounds in the market, but the world is keeping a watch on having the cheapest and safest vaccine. That is why, it is natural that the world is watching India,” PM Modi said.