Chandigarh: After going through extreme backlash for allegedly promoting Covaxin doses to personal hospitals at over and above the costs they had been procured from the Centre, the Capt Amarinder Singh-led Punjab authorities no Friday withdrew its earlier order of offering one time-limited vaccine doses to 18-44 years age group inhabitants by means of non-public hospitals.
A short letter – signed by Vikas Garg, the state-in-charge for COVID-19 vaccination – mentioned that the order “has not been taken in the fitting spirit and is hereby withdrawn”. It directed non-public hospitals to return all vaccine doses obtainable with them. The doses which they’ve utilised as of date must also be returned, as soon as they get provides from the producers, the discover mentioned. The cash deposited by the hospitals within the Vaccine Fund will likely be refunded, the order added.
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Earlier in the present day, Punjab’s Well being Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu ordered a probe into the Oppositions’ allegations that the state authorities has been diverting Covid vaccines to personal hospitals.
With out going into the specifics of the allegations, he mentioned he’ll first look forward to your complete image to emerge. “The vaccine programme isn’t involved with my Well being Division and is beneath the management of Chief Secretary and Vikas Garg, who’s the state’s nodal officer for the vaccination drive,” Sidhu mentioned.
SAD Alleges ‘Vaccien Rip-off’
His response was on the outset of allegations posed by Punjab’s opposition occasion SAD which accused the state’s Congress authorities of diverting Covid vaccines to personal hospitals at hefty margins. Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, in a press release on Thursday alleged that vaccine doses weren’t obtainable within the state however they had been being offered to personal establishments.
In a collection of Tweets, SAD chief claimed {that a} Covaxin dose costing Rs 400 to the state was being offered to personal establishments at Rs 1,060. He additional alleged that the non-public hospitals are additional charging individuals Rs 1,560 for every dose. This quantities to a price of Rs 6,000 to Rs 9,000 per household for a single dose. The federal government was additionally punishing individuals by forcing them to cough up Rs 1,560 per dose throughout a time of financial slowdown, Sukhbir Badal added.
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BJP Takes Swipe At Congress Over Inner Battle In Punjab
Reacting to the continued controversy, BJP leaders Prakash Javadekar and Anurag Thakur slammed the Punjab authorities and requested whether or not the Congress occasion in Punjab was dedicated to battle the COVID-19 pandemic within the state.
Javadekar mentioned Punjab is badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no such thing as a correct administration of inoculation drive within the state. The state authorities can also be not paying sufficient consideration to testing and different measures that must be taken to include the unfold, he alleged.
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