What kind of a setting? Delhi slams Centre over double standards in COVID-19 vaccination drive

In a press conference, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has accused the central government of having a "setting" with the private hospitals.

Sisodia said, "While the Delhi government intends to vaccinate young people, the central government is putting a brake on it. I want to ask the central government as to what is its problem if the Delhi government wants to vaccinate the youth?

"When we wish to vaccinate our youth, the central government says they have no vaccine. But the central government supplies vaccines to private hospitals which sell vaccines to youth at a high price. What kind of setting is this?"

"If the Centre has no vaccines to supply to the state governments, how are they supplying to the private hospitals," the Deputy Chief Minister questioned the Narendra Modi government.

The city government suspended the vaccination drive for all people in the age bracket 18-44 last week after it ran out of vaccines.

Earlier, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi had approached US pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Moderna, for anti-COVID-19 vaccine shots.

However, the companies had cleared that it would only deal with the central government of India.

Following this, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had appealed to the Centre to import vaccines and distribute them to the states.

India, which has the second highest total COVID-19 caseload after the United States, is struggling to cope with the second wave of the deadly virus.

Above all, India is running out of anti-COVID-19 vaccines at a time the poor health infrastructure of the South Asian country is overwhelmed with the influx of patients.

Though the online registration for vaccines for all people aged 18 or more through CO-WIN website was opened late last month, people by and large are unable to book a slot to get the jab.

Many including the opposition parties have also pointed finger at the Centre's import of vaccines to other countries at a time 1.3 billion people of India are still at risk.