New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Telangana counterpart K. Chandrasekhar Rao, or KCR as he is known, are the only two chief ministers in the country who are yet to take even the first shot of the Covid-19 vaccines.
ThePrint analysed the vaccine status of all 30 chief ministers in the country, and found that barring the two, every CM has taken at least one dose of either of the two Covid-19 vaccines — Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and AstraZeneca’s Covishield.
The latest to get the first shot was Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb.
“The honourable CM took the first dose of Covishield two days ago. He had contracted Covid-19 and waited, as per protocol, before taking the shot,” Tripura’s National Health Mission director, Siddharth Jaiswal, told ThePrint.
The second last CM to have taken his first shot is Uttarakhand’s Tirath Singh Rawat, who took it on 6 May.
West Bengal CM
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee was among the first to announce a free Covid-19 vaccination programme for all, and wrote as recently as 20 May to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking 20 lakh doses so all state employees in priority sectors are covered.
The chief minister, however, hasn’t been vaccinated herself.
She had earlier expressed apprehension over the safety and efficacy of the vaccines.
In a meeting with the Prime Minister on 11 January, the chief minister had argued “that adequate scientific opinions should be obtained before confirming the safety and efficacy of both the vaccines”. She had also sought clarifications on “whether there might be any side-effects, post-vaccination”.
Five months into the country’s vaccination programme, Banerjee hasn’t yet indicated whether or not she will take the vaccine. A source in the West Bengal health department said her vaccination plans “can’t be confirmed”.
The state, meanwhile, has inoculated 10.6 per cent of its population with the first dose, while 4.2 per cent are fully vaccinated, according to the latest data with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
“There is no vaccine hesitancy in the state but we are facing a massive shortage,” Director of Health Services, Ajoy Chakraborty, told ThePrint. “Vaccines for both age categories are inadequate. We have paid for 15 lakh vaccine doses but we have got 10 lakh, which is not enough for us.
“If we have adequate vaccines, we have the capacity to do 4.75 lakh vaccinations a day,” Chakraborty added.
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Telangana CM slammed by opposition BJP
Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao tested positive for Covid-19 on 19 April and has since recovered. He hadn’t, however, taken the vaccine before that, sources in the chief minister’s office confirmed to ThePrint.
Questions on why he hadn’t been vaccinated and whether he plans to in the future went unanswered.
The opposition BJP, however, has criticised KCR’s lack of enthusiasm for the vaccine on several occasions.
KCR did not launch the vaccination programme when it began across the country in January, earning flak from the opposition.
BJP spokesperson K Krishna Saagar Rao had then said, “CM KCR neither personally launched the vaccination programme in the state, as the elected head of the state, nor has he given a public message to the people of the state to participate in the historic vaccination programme.”
In April, BJP’s state chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar demanded to know why KCR hadn’t yet been vaccinated but was met with silence. “Vaccination plays a major role in controlling Covid- 19 spread and the TRS regime is not sincere about it. First, the CM and other leaders should tell if they got the vaccine dose or not,” he had then said.
KCR has, however, written to the central government about vaccine supplies and made suggestions to the Union health ministry about who should be given vaccines on priority.
Data with the state health department shows that 12 per cent of Telangana’s population has taken the first dose while only three per cent has taken the second dose.
The data also shows that the central government has provided the state with 5,40,190 vaccine doses, of which 4,70,240 are of Covishield and the remaining 78,332 are of Covaxin.
The state has also procured 4,90,590 doses, of which 3,90,010 are of Covishield and 1,00,580 are of Covaxin.
(Edited by Arun Prashanth)
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