Govt making efforts to administer COVID-19 vaccine to unvaccinated population: Bihar Minister

Reacting to the reports of 4488 healthcare workers not being administered even with the first dose of the COVID vaccine, Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey said that efforts are being made to vaccinate the remaining population of the state at a fast pace.

However, the Opposition termed the incident a "criminal act" of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government to have left out the healthcare workers from the vaccination process.

Speaking toon Sunday, Panday said, "Till now, about 9 crore 70 lakh COVID vaccine doses have been administered to the people in the state. The first dose has been administered to more than 5 crore 71 lakh population and the second dose has reached 4 crore."

"Bihar is among the top 5 states in terms of vaccination. If some people including healthcare workers are still unvaccinated, then, we'll conduct targeted vaccination drives", the health minister added.

Meanwhile, hitting out at the state government, Rashtriya Janata Dal senior leader Shivanand Tiwari said that not administering the first dose to the frontline workers is a "criminal act" and sought an apology from the Chief Minister on the matter.

"Chief Minister Nitish himself has said the rate of vaccination was the fastest in Bihar. The first dose was administered to the frontline workers. How were the 4488 health workers left out of the vaccination process? It is shocking that they have not been administered with the first dose. This is the criminal act of the Bihar government. Nitish Kumar should seek an apology from the people of Bihar and vaccinate the remaining health workers on priority. The health workers should stop working until they are fully vaccinated."

Tiwari further said that the administration of the state is presenting false statistics to the Chief Minister with regard to the COVID vaccination drive.

"It is being perceived that Nitish Kumar is running a good government but on the contrary, this is the condition under his rule. So I would say that he has no control over the administration. The administration of Bihar deceives Nitish Kumar by presenting false statistics on the COVID vaccination drive in front of him. when the country is starting to administer the third dose against COVID," the RJD leader said.

However, speaking to ANI, the healthcare workers of a city hospital said that all the staff members of their hospital have been fully vaccinated and further appealed to the unvaccinated section of the population to get fully vaccinated at the soonest.

Amid the Omicron scare and surge in cases in various parts of the country, the Union Health Ministry on Saturday said that multi-disciplinary Central teams would be deployed in ten identified states.

"A decision has been taken to deploy multi-disciplinary Central teams to 10 identified States some of which are either reporting an increasing number of Omicron and COVID-19 cases or slow vaccination pace," says Union Health Ministry in an official statement

Multi-disciplinary Central teams are to be deployed in Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Mizoram, Karnataka, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Punjab.

( With inputs from ANI )