Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday, 23 December, took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Twitter, for not rolling out vaccines in India like other countries such as the US, the UK, China, Russia and recently Canada, who have begun the inoculation process.
Gandhi said that 23 lakh people have received the vaccine, but asked the Modi government when will India’s turn come.
"23 lakh people in the world have already received Covid vaccinations. China, the US, the UK, Russia have started... India ka number kab ayegaa, Modi ji? (When will India get its turn)," tweeted Rahul Gandhi.
Gandhi’s jibe at PM Modi comes even as the Centre is in the process of analysing data before granting approval to several vaccines. However, they are likely to get approved for public use by January.
30 Crore People Identified as Priority Vaccine Candidates
India may start its COVID vaccination drive in January 2021, hinted Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Monday, 21 December. He also stated that regulators are looking into the emergency use authorisation sought by Pfizer for its COVID-19 vaccine.
Meanwhile, 30 crore people have been prioritised for the COVID-19 vaccines after consultation with experts, the health minister told ANI. These include health workers, frontline workers, like police and military and sanitation staff, people above 50 years of age and those who are below 50 years old but are suffering from certain diseases.
Even though India has not officially approved any vaccine, but sources have claimed that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine could get the government’s nod by next week, according to Hindustan Times.
PM Modi had announced earlier this month that India is likely to begin the vaccination roll out "within a few weeks", as first reported by NDTV.
India’s Current COVID Cases
India on Wednesday, 23 December, reported 23,950 fresh coronavirus cases, taking the tally in the country to 1,00,99,066. The death toll increased by 333 to 1,46,444.
According to the Union Health Ministry data, there are currently 2,89,240 active cases across the country, while 96,63,382 patients have been discharged so far. A total of 26,895 people have been discharged in the last 24 hours.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times and NDTV)
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