Congress President Sonia Gandhi asks party workers to work on addressing vaccine hesitancy

New Delhi, June 24: Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday expressed concern over the pace of COVID-19 vaccination in India, and said the country needs to prepare for the third wave of COVID-19 and protect children.

In a meeting of party general secretaries and in-charges of AICC in various states, Sonia Gandhi said that the party must ensure that vaccine hesitancy is overcome and wastage of vaccines minimised.

The Congress President also called upon the partymen to continue to put pressure on the union government to ensure that the daily rate of vaccination trebles so that 75 per cent of the population gets fully vaccinated by end of this year.

"No doubt, this is dependent entirely on the adequacy of vaccine supply. We must continue to put pressure on the Union government which has, at our party's insistence, finally taken on the responsibility for this," Gandhi said.

"At the same time, we have to ensure that registration takes place, that vaccine hesitancy wherever evident is overcome and vaccine wastage is minimised," she said addressing the party leaders virtually.