Priyanka Chaturvedi urges Harsh Vardhan to rope in private hospitals in COVID-19 immunisation drive

Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi on Friday urged Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan to rope in private hospitals in the nationwide COVID-19 immunisation drive.

In a letter to Vardhan, she also suggested opening mobile vaccination centres and resolve technical glitches on the CoWIN app among other measures, to ensure easy availability and accessibility to coronavirus vaccines.

"I would urge you to consider roping in private hospitals in the immunisation drive, also consider opening-up more mobile vaccination centres as well as plug the issues faced on CoWIN app," Chaturvedi said in the letter.

She further suggested, "I would request you to kindly consider de-regularising the sale of vaccine and capping the cost of the same to ensure that there is no heavy cost for the citizens to bear or the fear of hoarding. It would be unfair to the country that we do not use our own strength and leverage all our available resources to help society rid itself of the virus."

Pointing that India is once again seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases and the various strains of the virus have also been detected, she said that the vaccine supplies are under-utilised, citing Health Ministry data.

"In fact, the data of vaccine supplies shows that only 31.45 per cent of Covishield and 11.75 per cent Covaxin have been administered to frontline workers. If this is the case then shouldn't we reconsider our policy of regulating the availability of vaccines?" she questioned.

She further highlighted in her letter that the CoWIN app has been facing glitches with data.

"There are loopholes that exist for those who have access to networks and money to get vaccine shots on priority, while those who are from the weaker section of society suffer the consequences of such government regulation. Many countries have benefitted from the Vaccine Maitri initiative by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), isn't it high time that Indians get the same benefits of having a vaccine easily available for them?" she questioned in the letter.

CoWIN is a platform for the citizens of India to register for COVID-19 vaccination and schedule their vaccination slots at the nearest vaccination centres.

In her letter, the Shiv Sena MP also said that all states are administering COVID-19 vaccination to their frontline warriors and many have started the second round of dosage too, however, the Indian population is large and the tear of another wave that can have a tremendous impact on the economy.

"Hence it becomes our responsibility to ensure rapid voluntary vaccination for senior citizens, citizens with co-morbidities and the rest on a mass scale so that life resumes to safety sooner than later," she said.

( With inputs from ANI )