Health ministry data exposes Govt inefficiency
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: November 26, 2021 -

EVEN as the battle amid the waning cases of Covid-19 infection continues, it is important to take teps to avert the next wave of the pandemic.

While preventive measures initiated by the government and strict adherence to the safety guidelines by the public are of paramount importance in overcoming the virus, the advisory issued by the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry that specifically asked five north-eastern states, including Manipur, to increase testing and take immediate steps to control the spread of the contagion clearly indicates that those entrusted to draw up plans for battling the infectious disease have not been up to the mark.

The latest advisory from the ministry is rather embarrassing for Manipur in the context of tackling the contagion as three days earlier Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya sent another missive to chief secretaries of Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Puducherry for deploying all state government officials, one day each week, to visit each eligible household to motivate and mobilise them towards full ensuring vaccination.

These advisories served in quick succession make it clear that the state's record in vaccination and preventive steps, considered as the most potent means to overcome contemporary world s greatest threat, is not satisfactory to the ministry.

The earlier instructions given by Mansukh Mandaviya urged the four states, which have been reporting low vaccination coverage, to launch aggressive campaign to increase the pace and ensure full inoculation of the adult population, thereby implying that authorities overseeing administration of Covid-19 vaccine haven't been able to contribute their mite towards the Centre's concerted efforts of shielding the citizens from possible onslaught of another wave.

Reiterating that vaccination is the most potent weapon in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, Mandaviya had urged the states and the union territory to innovatively rope in all stakeholders, including NGOs, faith-based organisations, religious leaders, community influences and other partners, to motivate and mobilise all eligible population towards full Covid vaccination.

"We are in the last lap of Covid-19 vaccination. Let us launch aggressive campaign to ensure full vaccination by increasing the pace of vaccination and expanding the coverage," he said while virtually interacting with health secretaries and senior officials of the health department from Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Puducherry during a meeting he chaired to review the status of Covid vaccination in these states and the union territory and the progress under the 'Har Ghar Dastak' campaign.

Since launch of the nationwide vaccination campaign in January this year, the Centre has been ensuring that there is no shortage of vaccines.

However, Manipur continuously figuring among the states and union territories with the lowest vaccination and testing rate is worrisome in view of the ministry's letter pointing out that the Covid-19 death ratio in Manipur (1.57 per cent) is higher than the national mortality rate of 1.35 per cent.

Therefore, there is every reason to hold the government accountable if anybody gets infected or succumbs as the ministry's advisories have laid bare the fact that neither the vaccination campaign nor the preventive measures through intensive testing drive has been commendable.

Since its outbreak, public complacency has been often cited as the root cause of transmission of the infectious virus, but data of the health ministry has substantiated that the citizens are in peril due to incompetency of the government.