Lok Sabha: Oppn members seek to know govt's stand on Covid booster dose

TMC and NCP members on Thursday sought information from government on booster doses

Members of opposition TMC and NCP on Thursday sought to know from the government its stand on booster doses for COVID-19, besides usage of money from the PM-CARES funds.

Participating in a discussion on the COVID-19 pandemic in Lok Sabha, TMC member Saugata Roy accused the political leadership of "complacency" in handling of the pandemic.

He said it is because of the "mistakes" at the top level of the government that the country was caught "unprepared" in both the waves of COVID-19.

"Till today, I do not know about what happened to other vaccines that have been discovered in the world -- Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson. Whether all these vaccines have come to India and whether they can be used?" he said.

Is a booster dose necessary, Roy asked and added that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has not issued any directive yet.

NCP's Supriya Sule said states have also contributed to the PM-CARES fund, and sought to know how the Centre is distributing the money to states.

"What is your stand on the third dose? We all have ageing parents, families, health workers ... they all are anxious because there is no clarity," she said, asking the government to also make it clear that booster and third dose are the same.

Ritesh Pandey (BSP) accused the government of "leadership failure" in handling the pandemic and said in India less than one per cent of RT-PCR tests are sent for genome sequencing, which is the lowest among G-20 countries.