The Union health minister Harsh Vardhan today responded to a letter written by the former Prime Minister and Rajya Sabha Member, Manmohan Singh, to Narendra Modi, the present prime minister of India, informing that India launched the world’s biggest vaccination drive and also became the fastest in the world to reach the milestones of 10, 11 and 12 crore administered doses. 

Yesterday, April 18, Singh wrote a letter to Modi suggesting ways to ramp up the vaccination process in the country in the wake of the massive surge in COVID-19 cases. In the last 24 hours, India reported 273,810 new coronavirus cases, the highest single-day numbers since the pandemic started last year. 

As COVID-19 cases hit a record high, several states, such as Maharashtra, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, have reported running out of vaccines. Vardhan has been assuring that there was no vaccine shortage in the country.  

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In what he described as ‘constructive cooperation’ Singh had advised a five point approach the Indian government could follow to cope with the situation. 

He suggested a schedule of supply and a transparency on the number of orders for the vaccine that should be made public; a proper plan on how the vaccines would be distributed across the states so that they could plan accordingly; giving the states a flexibility on who they think should be vaccinated first; provide all possible support to the private vaccine manufacturers in the country to expand their manufacturing process by providing them funds and other concessions and finally in face of unprecedented emergency, facilitate and allow the import of vaccines into the country.  

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Responding to the letter, Vardhan said that while he appreciated the former prime minister’s well meaning advice, he was saddened by the attitude of the other senior members of the Congress party. He wrote that he found it “shocking that senior members of the Congress party are yet to utter a single word of gratitude towards our scientist community and the vaccine manufacturers…” 

The health minister Vardhan also wrote that a decision allowing import of vaccines had already been taken on April 11.