Got reports of fake vax camps in some states, govt tells Parliament

NEW DELHI: The government on Friday admitted in Parliament that there were some “inadvertent errors” in listing names of people — who have been given Covid vaccination certificates — while they were either dead or did not receive the vaccine.

In reply to questions raised by Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, junior health minister Bharti Pawar said “in occasional isolated cases, vaccination certificates were generated for people who were deceased or those who did not receive the vaccine on the day”. She said, “These cases are due to inadvertent data entry errors by vaccinators in updation of vaccination data of second dose beneficiaries.”

The ministry also said as per operational guidelines, “each beneficiary was to be verified prior to administration of a vaccine… to ensure the rightful beneficiary receives the vaccine dosage and there is no misuse”.

In a separate answer, Pawar said the government also received reports of fake Covid-19 vaccination camps and vaccines from Maharashtra, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. “The ministry of health has directed the state governments to investigate these instances and take stringent legal and administrative actions so that such fraudulent activities are not repeated in future,” she said.

Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya also fielded questions on the status of booster doses. He also asserted that India has administered the first dose of the Covid vaccine to 86% eligible population.