COVID-19: ‘With only 21% fully vaccinated, what is the BJP celebrating?’ asks Siddaramaiah

New Delhi: As India passed the 100 crore COVID-19 vaccination mark yesterday, former Karnataka chief minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah slammed the BJP, questioning why its leaders were celebrating it as an achievement when only about 21% of the population had been fully vaccinated.

Siddaramaiah stated on Twitter, “‘1 billion doses may appear to be a large number, but the devil is in the details.’ Only 29 million people out of 139 million are fully vaccinated, implying that only about 21% are fully vaccinated. What are the BJP leaders celebrating? For vaccinating only 21% of the population?”

Further slamming BJP, he said, “Only 29 Crore people have got two-doses and 42 Crore have got one dose, leaving 62 Crore without any single dose of vaccine. With just 29 Crore (21 per cent) people fully vaccinated, India’s positionis still in danger. Are BJP leaders celebrating India’s vulnerability?

Underlining that India needs about 106 crore doses to fully vaccinate the targeted population by December 31, 2021, the Congress leader said that at least 1.51 COVID doses have to be administered every day.

Is India prepared to handle this load and ensure all Indians are fully vaccinated by this year-end?What say PM Narendra Modi?” he asked.

Siddaramaiah further said in his tweet, “In US – 56 per cent population are fully vaccinated, in China, it is 70 per cent, in Canada it is 71 per cent. But India’s fully vaccinated coverage is just 21 per cent. Mr Narendra Modi, let us raise the bar before celebrating!!”

“Let us put a hold on the celebrations and concentrate on vaccinating everyone,” he added.

On October 21, India achieved the target of 1 billion, 100 crore vaccine doses.

Meanwhile, more than 100.59 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far to eligible beneficiaries, as per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.