Abhishek says Covid vaccine certificates have names of the dead
Kolkata: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare told Parliament on Friday that there have only been isolated cases across the country of Covid-19 vaccine certificates being issued in the name of deceased people, and measures were being taken to resolve instances of incorrect entries.
This comes in the wake of the Centre rejoicing over administering the highest number of vaccinations on September 17, thus, creating a world record while on the contrary, the Health ministry accepted that errors have led to the inclusion of names of the deceased or citizens who did not receive jabs on that particular day.
The Government of India celebrated Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday as 'Vaccination Drive Day' for administering over 2.5 crore vaccine shots.
While giving a written reply to an unstarred question raised by Abhishek Banerjee, the national general secretary of Trinamool Congress, in Parliament Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharati Pawar admitted that "in occasional, isolated cases, vaccination certificates are generated for people who are deceased or those who did not receive the vaccine. These cases are due to inadvertent data entry errors by vaccinator in upgradation of vaccination data of second dose of beneficiaries."
Earlier, Abhishek had alleged that during the 'Vaccine Drive Day', certificates were issued in the name of people who were already deceased or citizens who did not receive the jab on that day. The minister's statement on Friday confirmed his allegations.
He also asked whether these numbers were included in the 2.5 crore doses that were said to have been administered on that day and also wanted to know about the measures that the Centre has taken to ensure that such mistakes do not reoccur.
"The MoHFW has advised states and Union Territories on multiple occasions to ensure the correctness of data entry," the minister said.
The MoS Health replied: "The beneficiaries who are due for the second dose of vaccine are traced on the Co-WIN using mobile number, beneficiary reference ID, photo ID card number, and their vaccination status is updated on Co-WIN for the second dose. As per the operational guidelines on COVID-19 Vaccination issued by the Government of India, each beneficiary should be verified before administration of vaccine dose with any of the nine prescribed photo cards."
The ministry also pointed out that a four-digit secret coding system is in place to ensure that the right persons are vaccinated and there is no misuse of shots.
The Health ministry has advised all states and Union Territories to ensure that the data is entered correctly.
