Vaccine wastage by AP, Telangana riles Narendra Modi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday pulled up Andhra Pradesh and Telangana along with Uttar Pradesh for drawbacks in planning and governance of vaccine administration which was leading to over 6.5 per cent wastage in vaccines. Modi said though the vaccination pace had increased, "vaccine doses wastage" should be taken seriously. "Vaccine waste was more in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh," he said.

The Prime Minister told the Chief Ministers to immediately correct the drawbacks of planning and governance at the local level to reduce vaccine waste. "Let there not be any laxity in implementing the SOPs'," he cautioned.

The Prime Minister, who was addressing the Chief Ministers through a video conference on Wednesday, also expressed concern over the high test positivity rate in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

AP also figures among the new risk States as the number of Covid-19 cases are steadily rising. The Prime Minister noted the need for provision of micro-containment zones. Stressing the need to be serious about 'Test, Track and Treat' as the country had been doing for the last one year, he said it was very important to track every infected person's contacts in the shortest time and keep the RT-PCR test rate above 70 per cent.

He insisted on more emphasis on rapid antigen tests. He urged the Chief Ministers to increase testing and to pay special attention to the 'referral system' and 'ambulance network' in small cities. He called for increasing the number of vaccination centres and asked to stay vigilant about the vaccine expiry date. 'Dawai bhi aur kadai bhi' insisted the Prime Minister.