The Centre on Thursday came out with a detailed counter to States’ allegations of closure of supply of vaccines to them saying it was the States which wanted “flexibility” and “a say” in procurement of vaccines and it was in view of their demand that a new “decentralised” system was brought in.
As per the system, the Government said, the Centre was to procure 50 per cent of vaccines produced domestically for States for free for 45+ group and a special channel was to be created for the remaining 50 per cent which the State Governments and private hospitals could purchase.
In a statement titled ‘Myths & Facts on India’s Vaccination Process’, Dr VK Paul, Member-Health, Niti Aayog, listed out seven ‘myths’ ranging from the Centre abdicating its responsibility to the states, not doing enough to buy vaccines from abroad, not giving enough vaccines to the States and not approving vaccines available globally among others. He asserted that these are arising due to “distorted statements, half truths and blatant lies”.
He said the Centre ran the entire vaccine programme from January to April and it was quite well-administrated compared to the situation in May. “But States, who had not even achieved good coverage of healthcare workers and frontline workers in 3 months, wanted to open up the process of vaccination and wanted more decentralisation,” he stressed.
“Health is a State subject and the liberalised vaccine policy was a result of the incessant requests being made by the states to give them more power. The fact that global tenders have not given any results only reaffirm what we have been telling the States from day one: that vaccines are in short supply in the world and it is not easy to procure them at short notice,” he maintained against the backdrop of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal complaining about foreign vaccine makers not being ready to deal with States and the global tenders floated by States not evoking a warm response from these manufacturers.
Incidentally, a number of Opposition Chief Ministers and leaders had sought for more power to the States in the vaccine procurement process.
Facing accusations of delay in placing orders for vaccines, the government said it has been pursuing Pfizer, J&J and Moderna since mid-2020 for the earliest possible imports, and has even waived local trials for well-established foreign vaccine makers. "Buying vaccines internationally is not similar to buying ''off-the-shelf'' items," Paul maintained.
On allegations by some states that the Centre is not giving enough vaccines to the states, it pointed out that the Centre is allotting enough vaccines to the states in a transparent manner as per agreed guidelines.
"The behaviour of some of our leaders, who in spite of full knowledge of the facts on vaccine supply, appear on TV daily and create panic among the people is very unfortunate. This is not the time to play politics. We need everyone to unite in this fight," the statement said.
The Government also dismissed a report published by The New York Times on India's Covid death toll and called it "completely baseless and false". In its report, the NYT estimated that India's "real" Covid death toll could be way higher than what has officially been reported.