Centre’s unpreparedness alarming: Rahul Gandhi targets govt over coronavirus vaccine strategy

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi slammed the Centre for failing to have a vaccine to fight the novel coronavirus, and said the government's unpreparedness is alarming.

With Covid-19 cases in India crossing the 33 lakh-mark on Thursday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi wrote on Twitter, "A fair and inclusive Covid vaccine access strategy should have been in place by now. But there are still no signs of it."

GOI's unpreparedness is alarming, Rahul Gandhi wrote on Twitter as he quote tweeted his earlier tweet where he had demanded the government to define an inclusive and equitable vaccine access policy to ensure its affordability and fair distribution.

In his tweet dated August 14, Rahul Gandhi had said the government must spell out its strategy as India will soon be one of the Covid-19 vaccine producing countries.

"India will be one of the Covid-19 vaccine-producing nations. It needs a clearly-defined, inclusive & equitable vaccine access strategy ensuring availability, affordability & fair distribution. GOI must do it now," Rahul Gandhi had tweeted.

Prime Minister



Narendra Modi had in his Independence Day address, asserted that the country has prepared a roadmap to ensure that a Covid-19 vaccine reaches everyone in the shortest possible time.
He said three vaccine candidates are in different stages of trials in the country.

"I want to tell people, the talent of our scientists is like that of 'rishi munis' and they are working very hard in laboratories. Three vaccines are in various stages of testing. When scientists will give us the green signal, it will be produced on a mass scale and all preparations have been made for it," Modi had said in address.

The phase-1 and 2 human clinical trials of two of the vaccine candidates, developed indigenously by Bharat Biotech, in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR), and Zydus Cadila Ltd, are currently underway.

The Serum Institute of India, which has been permitted for conducting human clinical trials of the third vaccine candidate developed by the Oxford University, began phase 2 on Wednesday. The Pune-based institute has partnered with AstraZeneca for manufacturing the vaccine.