Gaurav Gogoi slams Union Health Minister for 'belittling' vaccination concerns

Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi on Thursday slammed the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya for 'belittling' states' concerns pertaining to vaccination shortage in the country.

Gaurav Gogoi slams Union Health Minister

GUWAHATI: Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi on Thursday slammed the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya for 'belittling' states' concerns pertaining to vaccination shortage in the country.

Taking to Twitter, Gogoi stated that the attitude cannot be changed by changing the Minister.

"You might change the Minister, but you can't change the attitude of the PM Modi government. Lack of vaccines is a real problem. Only in a BJP government do we see a Union Health Minister belittling the legitimate concerns of the states of India", said Gogoi.

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This comes after the newly appointed Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday said that 'meaningless statements' related to vaccine availability are creating panic among the people.

The health Minister further said that he has received letters from the state governments and leaders regarding the availability of vaccines. The information regarding availability of vaccines was provided to the states in advance, stated the Health Minister.

"States know very well when, and in what quantity, they will get vaccine doses', he said in a tweet.

Gogoi has been vocal about his concerns over inequality in allocation of ventilators to states in the Northeastern region.

Gaurav Gogoi on allocation of vaccination

Last month, in a letter to former Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Gogoi said , "There is discernible inequity in allocation of ventilators to states in the northeast which needs to be remedied urgently.”

He stressed that adequate support should be provided to the states, especially in the Northeast that are witnessing higher number of active cases.

Gogoi based his points on the state wise data on allocation, delivery, and installation of ventilators as on June 22, 2021, he received in response to his RTI. On comparing the data with state-wise active cases as on June 23, he observed the slanted treatment.

Gogoi observed that Assam recorded over 32,000 cases amounting approximately 5% of total active cases as on June 23. The state was allocated a total of 1000 ventilators. While Uttar Pradesh recorded nearly 4000 cases which is about 0.61% of the total active cases and yet saw allocation of 6,316 ventilators, the highest allocation in the country. The second highest was made to Gujarat 6,200 ventilators despite state’s significantly lower number of 5,159 active cases which is 0.80% of the total active cases.

He further stated that Manipur, Meghalaya and Mizoram recorded a higher number of active cases as compared to Bihar and Jharkhand. However the allocation of ventilators is inversely proportional to the number of active cases in these states.

The Congress MP also highlighted the gap between delivery and installation of ventilators in several states. He informed that Uttar Pradesh is yet to install 1067 of the delivered ventilators.

“Such gaps lead to underutilization of resources and potential shortage during health crisis”, he added in the letter.

He further requested the Union Health Minister to raise the allocation of ventilators to 5000 for Assam and 500 each for the states of Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.