To Rahul Gandhi's vaccine shortage remark, health minister's crushing comeback

New Delhi, Aug 01: Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Sunday hitback at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for doing "petty politics" over the Covid vaccine.

On Sunday, Rahul Gandhi took to twitter and posted even though the month of July is over, the shortage in vaccine supply is still not over.

Gandhi had tweeted in Hindi saying "July is gone, but the shortage of vaccine hasn''t gone away." He used the hashtag #WhereAreVaccines.

जुलाई चला गया है, वैक्सीन की कमी नहीं गयी।#WhereAreVaccines https://t.co/0hGVAv78x4 pic.twitter.com/QKyHBMR6X4

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 1, 2021

In reply to this tweet, Mandaviya, who became the health minister said over 13 crore vaccine doses have been administered in the country and that vaccination drive will be sped up in the coming weeks.

"I have heard, you are one of those 13 crores people who have been vaccinated in July. But, you have not said a single word for our scientists or appealed to people to get themselves vaccinated. You are playing petty politics in name of vaccination. In fact, not the vaccine, you lack maturity," tweeted Mandiya in Hindi.

सुना है, जुलाई में जिन 13 करोड़ लोगों को टीके लगाए गए, उनमें से आप भी एक हैं।

लेकिन आपने हमारे वैज्ञानिकों के लिए एक शब्द नहीं बोला, जनता से वैक्सीन लगाने की अपील नहीं की। मतलब आप वैक्सीनेशन के नाम पर तुच्छ राजनीति कर रहे हैं।
दरअसल वैक्सीन की नहीं, आपमें परिपक्वता की कमी है।

— Mansukh Mandaviya (@mansukhmandviya) August 1, 2021

According to health ministry data, the cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 47 crore with 60,15,842 doses being administered in a span of 24 hours.

More than 3 crore balance and unutilised doses are still available with the states, union territories and private hospitals.

The new phase of universalisation of COVID-19 vaccination has commenced from 21st June, 2021. Out of the people infected since the beginning of the pandemic, 3,08,20,521 people have already recovered from COVID-19 and 39,258 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours. This constitutes an overall recovery rate of 97.36%.

With substantially ramped up testing capacity across the country, a total of 17,89,472tests were conducted in the last 24 hours in the country. Cumulatively, India has conducted over 46.82 crore (46,82,16,510) tests so far.