Congress president Sonia Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, asking the government to expand the categories eligible for vaccination on the basis of need and exposure, rather than age. She also called for equipment, instruments, medicines and support infrastructure required to deal with the crisis to be exempted from GST.
Sonia in her letter said that “vaccines are our foremost hope” but “sadly, most of the states, including those ruled by the BJP and its allies, are left with a stock of just 3 to 5 days”.
“While it will be necessary on one hand to substantially ramp up our domestic production capacity, it will also be prudent to allow emergency use authorization of all the vaccine candidates that have the required clearances, without any further delay. Accordingly, with enhanced availability, categories eligible for vaccination should be expanded on the basis of need and exposure rather than just age,” Sonia wrote.