Team News Riveting
Raipur, February 11
The Congress-ruled state government and opposition Bharatiya Janata Party have locked horns over the issue of vaccinating home-made Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
The state government has requested the central government not to send Covaxin till the final phase of trial is completed while the BJP has accused the government of adopting a stubborn attitude in the matter.
State Health Department Minister TS Singhdev said on Wednesday that he has written a letter to Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan requesting him not to send Covaxin.
Singhdev said the Phase-3 trial of the home-grown vaccine is not yet complete. The Minister said a consent form has also been sent with the Covaxin, to be filled by the person administering it. The form underlines that the vaccine is undergoing Phase III trials. If the company is testing the vaccine, then they need to find a volunteer for it. How will the government do this work? This work belongs to the company, Singhdeo said.
The minister reiterated that the vaccine would be used in Chhattisgarh once the final phase of trial was completed successfully.
Officials associated with the vaccination campaign of COVID-19 in Chhattisgarh said that 2.74 lakh health workers and officers have been included in the first phase of vaccination in the state. More than 66 per cent of these employees and officers have been vaccinated.
Officials said that the state had received about 5.55 lakh doses of Covishield besides over 70 thousand doses of Covaxin. The state government had not given its consent to use Covaxin.
The state’s main opposition, Bharatiya Janata Party had accused the Health Minister of adopting a stubborn approach in the matter for not using the Covaxin in the state. Party spokesperson and former minister Ajay Chandrakar said that in the arrogance of power, the state government and its health minister were trying to gain the political mileage out of Covaxin when it was globally demanded and used.
Chandrakar said that after all scientific and clinical tests, India had started using the Covaxin and Chhattisgarh’s health minister was misguiding people.
He added that the Congress government had no right to play with the health of the common man.
