A parliamentary panel on home affairs observed that “till now, less than 1% of the Indian population has been vaccinated and at this rate it will take many years to vaccinate whole population.”
The parliamentary standing committee on home affairs, headed by Congress leader Anand Sharma, tabled the report in Rajya Sabha on Monday.
Second dose missed
“The Committee also expresses its concern that a large number of people are missing the second dose of the vaccine. The Committee believes that it is very serious issue as the virus is mutating and new variants of COVID-19 are being reported in different parts of the world,” the report said.
The committee recommended that all frontline health workers and corona warriors, including central armed police force (CAPF) personnel and State police receive the recommended doses of vaccine.
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“An attempt should be made to cover maximum people as early as possible,” the report said.
It added that that vaccination in Lakshadweep can be done for everyone as the population is very small (around 70,000) and “the medical facilities are limited.”
Also read: Coronavirus | How to register and schedule an appointment for COVID-19 vaccination
To combat hesitancy
Officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs told the panel that a special campaign against vaccine hesitancy has been launched.
“Further, regular reviews are being undertaken with States and UTs for increasing the pace of vaccination drive and advisories have been issued to them on various operational aspects of COVID-19 vaccination,”the Ministry said.
“A communication strategy has been developed for implementation at the national and State level to raise awareness about the safety, efficacy and immunogenicity of COVID-19 vaccines through prompt and consistent dissemination of factual information and to address misinformation related to it,” it added.
