Taking a dig at the recent expansion of the Union Council of Ministers under the Narendra Modi-led government, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi tweeted Sunday, “The number of ministers have increased, not vaccines.”
Gandhi shared a chart illustrating the current status of vaccination in the country, according to which 60 per cent of the population must be fully vaccinated by December in order to stop the third wave of infections in India. For this, nearly 8.8 million doses must be administered daily, the chart states.
The chart further notes that a shortfall in the number of doses given each day would mean a rise in the required rate of vaccination. On Saturday, July 10, 3.7 million doses were administered in India, which means there was a shortfall of 5.1 million jabs. A similar pattern has been observed in the last seven days, according to the chart.
Gandhi’s dig comes after PM Modi introduced 36 new faces in the Union Cabinet, taking the tally to 78, just a notch short of the statutory limit of 81.
The newly-appointed Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, replacing Dr Harsh Vardhan at the helm of the coronavirus crisis, had on Thursday announced a Covid-19 Emergency Response and Health Preparedness package of Rs 23,123 crore. This would include creation of paediatric units in all 736 districts, installation of 1,050 liquid medical oxygen storage tanks, and expansion of the teleconsultation platform that will offer 5 lakh consultations per day.
On July 11, India reported 41,506 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours and added 895 deaths. As many as 37,60,32,586 doses had been administered in the country as of Sunday morning, with 37,23,367 of them in the last 24 Hours.
Latest research shows that the reproductive number, or R, an indicator of how fast the Covid-19 pandemic is spreading, has moved up significantly between June 20 and July 7. This could be an early signal of an impending potential surge in the number of cases.