Image Courtesy:hindustantimes.com
Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar was trying to give Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal a dose on how to manage the shortage of Covid-19 vaccines in the National Capital. However, Khattar ended up exposing that the Haryana government was in fact administering a limited number of vaccines to the people so they could apparently ‘manage’ the stocks better.
In a video clip he appeared to be reacting to the Kejriwal-led government’s regular alerts on shortage of vaccines, and suggested that the Delhi government was using up vaccine stocks too fast, and running low on it leading to the pause in administering shots to the 18-44 age group.
He also accused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who along with senior members of his team, have been talking about the shortage of vaccines almost daily, of “indulging in politics”. Kejriwal replied, “My goal is not to save vaccines, it is to save lives.” He said it was only the vaccine that will save lives, and the more people are vaccinated, more lives will be saved.
खट्टर साहिब, वैक्सीन से ही लोगों की जान बचेगी। जितनी जल्दी वैक्सीन लगेंगी, उतने लोग सुरक्षित होंगे। मेरा मक़सद वैक्सीन बचाना नहीं, लोगों की जान बचाना है। pic.twitter.com/WnWGxyIJ7O
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) May 31, 2021
Khattar, on Sunday accused Kejriwal of indulging in “drama” as the latter had announced a shut down of vaccination centres due to a shortfall. However the Haryana CM’s formula to ration the vaccine to a limited number each day so it lasts longer is flawed to even a lay person. “Like other states, should we also finish all 2 lakh doses in a day? We use 50,000-60,000 doses a day. All this… Arvind Kejriwal should see. But his intention is to indulge in politics and he does that. Nobody should play politics during a pandemic,” said Khattar.
Meanwhile, Kejriwal asked, “If we go at a slower pace to save the vaccines, how will we ensure vaccination for all our people to protect them from Corona?” He put the ball back in the Central government’s court and said that, states are unable to procure vaccines on their own, as manufacturers want to deal with the Centre directly. Kejriwal said, “Procurement, production, and distribution of the vaccines is the responsibility of the Central government,” whereas administering the vaccines to the people was the state governments’ responsibility.
He also said that Delhi is also facing a low supply of injections needed to treat black fungus cases. “There are 300 cases of Black Fungus in Central government hospitals and around 650 in Delhi government hospitals. However, the supply of injections is low. We had received 1,000 injections the day before yesterday, but did not receive any injections yesterday. It takes 3-4 injections per person per day,” he said.
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