Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan has brought up serious allegations against the Pinarayi Vijayan government over vaccine registration. These allegations are raised at a time when the country is going through the second Covid-19 wave.
According to reports, Muraleedharan has claimed that the state government has been demanding vaccine free of cost but is instead helping private hospitals. “Till date, the Centre has supplied 70 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine for free vaccination drive. However, the Kerala government is trying to help private hospitals by vaccinating people at Rs 250 per dose instead of vaccinating the poor people via primary health centres and government hospitals,” Muraleedharan alleged,
Muraleedharan also claimed that the Kerala government is sabotaging the operation of the CoWIN app to help the private hospitals in Kerala. He asked why the government is ignoring the public sector by setting aside Covid-19 vaccines for private sectors. He also claimed that the Left government is misleading the people of Kerala by saying that the Centre is not supplying Covid-19 vaccines.
Earlier, Muraleedharan had criticized the state government on lapses during the mega vaccination drive. He said that while the Kerala government is busy criticizing the Centre over Covid-19 vaccination, people are collapsing after standing in long queues, waiting for vaccination in Kerala.
Meanwhile, thirteen districts in Kerala have reported the presence of double-mutant variants of the coronavirus. According to reports, Kottayam has the highest presence of the B1 617 virus, which is considered a double mutant. The mutant variant has been found in all districts except Pathanamthitta. Reportedly, the transmission of this variant has intensified.
Reports suggest that 40% of the samples collected in the first week of April confirmed that different variants have the potential for faster transmission. On Monday, Kerala reported 21,890 new Covid-19 cases and the Test Positivity Rate (TPR) is 22.71%. Meanwhile, India reported over three lakh cases for a record sixth day.
