India News | Centre Not Fulfilling Responsibility to Provide Enough Vaccine: Tope
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Tuesday alleged that the Union government was not fulfilling its responsibility to provide adequate number of vaccine doses to states.
Mumbai, May 11 (PTI) Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Tuesday alleged that the Union government was not fulfilling its responsibility to provide adequate number of vaccine doses to states.
"The Union government has not provided enough vials of Covaxin and Covishield, hence we had to divert our own Covaxin stock, purchased for the 18-44 years age group, for the above- 45 age group," Tope told reporters here.
"The Union government is not fulfilling its responsibility of providing sufficient quantity of vaccine," he added.
The Union government should grant approval to all the COVID-19 vaccines available in the global market, Tope said.
"It is a reasonable and necessary thing to do now," the minister added.
Further, the Centre should help the existing two vaccine-makers in the country -- Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India -- to enhance their production, Tope said.
The Maharashtra government has asked vaccination centres to use the vials provided for the 18-44 age group to inoculate the above 45 category, the minister said. "We are going slow on the vaccination of 18-44 age group," he said.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)