New Delhi: As many countries including Russia, China, US and UK have begun their vaccination drives for the deadly novel Coronavirus, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday slammed the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi for not deploying the vaccines in India.
23 lakh people in the world have already received Covid vaccinations.
China, US, UK, Russia have started…
India ka number kab ayegaa, Modi ji? pic.twitter.com/cSmT8laNfJ
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) December 23, 2020
“23 lakh people in the world have already received Covid vaccinations. China, US, UK, Russia have started. India ka number kab ayegaa, Modi ji? (When will India’s number come?),” Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet.
According to a report by Hindustan Times, India is yet to approve a vaccine for its vaccination drive but reports say that the government could approve the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine by next week.
They are also considering the emergency use authorisation requested by Bharat Biotech and Pfizer. The government has assured that the vaccine would be deployed only when its safety has been proven.
India’s Health Ministry has said that they have ramped up storage facilities for the vaccine and that in the beginning, the vaccine would be administered to 100 people a day who would then be monitored but eventually, everyone would be administered the shot. Frontline workers are the first in line to get vaccinated in the first phase of the vaccination drive.
The report added that US have authorized the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech and the Moderna coronavirus vaccines with several high ranking government officials like Vice President Mike Pence, president-elect Joe Biden, Anthony Fauci and health secretary Alex Azar receiving either of the two.
The UK has authorized use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine with 130,000 people administered the shot within the first week of the vaccination drive. The country is currently facing a grave coronavirus crisis with the emergence of the new B117 mutated strain that is 70% more transmissible than the original. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was forced to impose lockdown upon London and southern England during the Christmas period to contain the spread.
China has deployed Sinopharm’s coronavirus vaccine to inoculate its citizens against the virus while Russia has deployed the Sputnik V vaccine, HT reported.
According to Johns Hopkins University, India currently has 10,099,066 confirmed coronavirus infections and the death toll stands at 146,444.
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