Rahul Gandhi slams Centre over over COVID-19 vaccine

New Delhi, Aug 27: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has once again slammed the central government for not having a vaccine to fight the novel coronavirus disease which has affected over three million people in India.

Taking to Twitter, Rahul Gandhi said, "A fair and inclusive Covid vaccine access strategy should have been in place by now. But there are still no signs of it. GOI's unpreparedness is alarming."

This comes a day after he slammed the Centre over the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) latest warning on economic contraction amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

"RBI has now confirmed what I have been warning for months," the Congress MP posted a tweet on Wednesday morning along with a news report.

Rahul Gandhi also provided suggestions to the government which includes "Government needs to: Spend more, not lend more. Give money to the poor, not tax cuts to industrialists. Restart economy by consumption."

On Tuesday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had said that three vaccine candidates are the frontrunners in the country.

"Three COVID-19 vaccines are ahead in the race in India. Serum Institute's vaccine is in phase 2(B) & phase 3 trials and Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila's vaccines have completed phase 1 trial," Professor (Dr) Balram Bhargava, Director General of ICMR had said.

The second phase trial of COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University, which would be manufactured by Serum Institute of India, began in Pune on Wednesday with the vaccine candidate administered to two volunteers at Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College.