'Govt exported 64.5 million Covid-19 vaccines, haven't inoculated these many here': AAP
“The rate at which we are vaccinating our citizens, it will take 15 years to vaccinate the entire population,” said Raghav Chadha.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday questioned the Centre on its vaccine diplomacy. The party said that instead of sending “64.5 million” doses of Covid-19 vaccines all over the world, the government could have accelerated the nationwide vaccination drive.
“The government has exported 64.5 million doses of the vaccine to 84 countries, they haven’t vaccinated these many people in their own country yet,” AAP spokesperson Raghav Chadha while addressing a press conference in the national capital.
"Where has the Centre's vaccine nationalism gone? The AAP demands an increase in the rate of vaccinations against Covid-19 so that each and every Indian can get vaccinated," Chadha told reporters.
“The rate at which we are vaccinating our citizens, it will take 15 years to vaccinate the entire population,” said Chadha.
“The ministry of external affairs said a few days ago that India is competing with China in terms of exporting vaccines. Proudly stating that India is ahead of China in terms of vaccine diplomacy. A country which has a total of 90,000 Covid-19 cases is being compared to a country where 90,000 cases are recorded everyday,” Chadha told reporters at the press conference.
Chadha read out the names of the countries where vaccines have been exported, jocularly adding that vaccines have been exported to countries whose names he's hearing for the first time.
The AAP leader's comments came days after Delhi chief minister and party president Arvind Kejriwal urged the centre to open up vaccination for everyone. The Centre recently allowed all those above the age of 45 to take Covid-19 vaccine. This expanded the scope of the second phase of the drive in which people above the age of 60 and 45+ with comorbidities were being inoculated. From May 1, the drive will open for everyone between the age of 35 and 45.
Many experts have been sounding alarm bells over the deteriorating situation in the country in the wake of the rising number of Covid-19 cases. They have urged the Centre to inoculate more people.
India has so far administered 7,91,05,163 of the Covid-19 vaccines in 12,31,148 sessions, according to the ministry of health and family welfare’s dashboard. These numbers remain significantly behind the government’s inoculation targets - the Centre has set a target of vaccinating over 300 million people by the end of July.
