Vax pace slow, may take years to cover all Indians: Parliamentary panel

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 15

The parliamentary panel has raised concerns over the slow pace of Covid-19 vaccination in India, saying with the current rate it will take many years to vaccinate the entire population in the county.

The department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affair in its 231st report on demand for grants for 2021-23 said: “The panel takes note of the ongoing vaccination process for Covid-19 and observes that, till now, less than 1 per cent of the Indian population has been vaccinated and at this rate it will take many years to vaccinate the entire population.”

Shot must for all Frontline workers

All frontline health workers and personnel of CAPF and state/UT police should receive the recommended doses of vaccine on priority and an attempt should be made to cover maximum people as early as possible. — Parliamentary panel

The panel, in the report, also expressed its concern that a large number of people were missing the second dose of the vaccine.

“The committee believes that it is very serious issue as the virus is mutating and new variants of Covid-19 are being reported in different parts of the world,” it said, and recommended that all frontline health workers and personnel of CAPFs and State/UT Police should receive the recommended doses of vaccine on priority and an attempt should be made to cover maximum people as early as possible.

The committee, however, appreciated the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for taking certain positive initiatives despite the pandemic and lockdown. It appreciated the MHA in “establishing Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU), implementation of Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) and CCTNS, conducting District Development Council (DDC) elections in the UT of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), Immigration Visa and Foreigners’ Registration & Tracking (IVFRT) system, resettlement of Bru (Reang) and upgrade of forensic capacity”.