New Delhi: Against the backdrop of the ongoing Covod-19 vaccination drive, a Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs on Monday expressed concern that a large number of people are missing the second dose of the vaccine.
The committee in its 231-page report on demand for grants presented in the Rajya Sabha found that till now less than 1 percent of the Indian population has been vaccinated "and at this rate, it will take many years to vaccinate the whole population."
The committee believes that it is a very serious issue as the virus is mutating and new variants of Covid-19 are being reported in different parts of the world.
The committee recommends that all frontline health care workers and corona warriors including CAPFs and State as well as UT police personnel receive the recommended dose of vaccine.
"An attempt should be made to cover maximum people as early as possible," the committee said.
It may be mentioned here that a few states including Maharastra, Punjab, Gujarat and others have been witnessing a spike in Covid cases.
The committee also recommends that vaccination in Lakshadweep can be done for everyone as the population is very small (70,000 approx). "As the medical facilities are limited, priority needs to be given for vaccination in Lakshadweep," the parliamentary committee headed by Congress MP Anand Sharma said.
Also read: With rising number of cases, fear of second wave looms in Karnataka
A health ministry statistics available with ETV Bharat shows that a total of 2,99,08,038 Covid-19 doses have been inoculated to beneficiaries till Monday morning.
Ironically, 54,55,653 beneficiaries have been vaccinated with the second Covid-19 dose whereas 2,44,52,385 beneficiaries have been vaccinated with 1st dose of Covid-19.
Statistics further said that 1,20,885 beneficiaries have been vaccinated with 1st dose and 19,995 beneficiaries have been vaccinated with the second dose in the last 24 hours.
