A day after the Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that the aim of COVID-19 vaccination “is not to administer the vaccine to those who want it but to those who need it”, Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi has written to the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan requesting him to make COVID19 vaccination accessible to all persons above the age of 18. 

“The need and want from all Indians, across all states and age groups is genuine… India has a large population in the age group of 18-45 that needs the vaccine beyond its want… The vaccine is the basic right of every Indian,” she wrote in her letter dated today.

“In my letter to Hon. Health Min, I have requested him to make vaccine accessible to all above 18 years & Maharashtra be provided adequate vaccines as it faces acute shortage. This is the NEED of the HOUR not a mere WANT,” the member of Parliament from Rajya Sabha stated in her tweet. 

Chaturvedi is not the only one who has asked for lowering the eligibility criteria for COVID19 vaccination in the country. Day before, on April 5, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray wrote to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi “to further lower the age group eligible for vaccination to 25 years old to curb the intensity of the rising cases in the state.”

Also Read: Lower COVID-19 vaccination age to 25, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray requests PM Modi

Yesterday the Indian Medical Association (IMA) also wrote to Modi urging him to intensify vaccination on a ‘war footing’. It has also asked for all citizens above the age of 18 to be allowed to receive the COVID19 vaccination. At present, people above the age of 45 are allowed to receive the vaccine. 

Additionally, the IMA has asked for walk-in COVID vaccination for all, free of cost. To break the chain, the association has suggested “limited period continuous lock down implemented especially for all the non-essential areas like cinema cultural and religious events, sports, etc.”

Amid the rising coronavirus cases, state governments are also writing to the central government asking for additional vaccine doses. The same was reiterated by Chaturvedi in her letter to the health minister. 

“The speed of vaccination and the volume also means that many districts have run out of vaccines and other districts have stocks that would last only for 48 hours,” she wrote in her letter. “We need the Union Government to release more vaccines to Maharashtra in time so that we can keep up the Government of India’s drive to safeguard as many citizens as possible,” reads the letter.

Meanwhile, in another letter to the Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, PK Mohapatra, additional chief health secretary of Odisha, has also urged the central government to supply additional doses of the COVID19 vaccine to the state, as the state has vaccine doses to conduct vaccination sessions for another three days only.