Open up vaccination for all: Chief ministers at Coronavirus meeting with PM Modi

Chief ministers urged the Centre to allow vaccinations for everyone to prevent spread of Covid-19 during a virtual conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday to review the pandemic. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, her Chhattisgarh counterpart Bhupesh Baghel and UP CM Yogi Adityanath did not attend Wednesday’s meeting due to their preoccupation with assembly election campaign.

A Trinamool leader told ET the meeting was called at a short notice and Banerjee had scheduled her programmes well in advance. Incidentally, Banerjee released her party’s poll manifesto on Wednesday. Baghel is Congress in-charge of Assam assembly elections and asked his Cabinet colleague Tamradhwaj Sahu to attend the meeting. UP CM Yogi Adityanath too did not attend the meeting because of his poll campaign in Assam. Health minister Jai Pratap Singh and medical education minister Suresh Khanna represented UP at the conference.

Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray demanded supply of more vaccines to meet the daily target of three lakh vaccinations. At present, the state vaccinates 1,38,000 people daily. Thackeray said the state would have stocks for only 10 days if it vaccinates three lakh daily. He also demanded that state owned HBPCL be allowed to produce vaccines to make it widely available. He said that vaccination should be opened for all people above 45 and sought the Centre’s help in finding the reasons for sharp rise in cases in certain parts while requesting for its guidance to tackle the cases.


Punjab CM captain Amarinder Singh urged the Centre to review its immunisation strategy to vaccinate all age groups in selected areas, while announcing a stricter policy to deal with the problem. He also underlined the need to strengthen viral sequencing, particularly in Punjab. “Over 50% positive cases now are below 40 and we need to urgently assess whether this is due to any variant,” he said during the meeting.

Karnataka CM Yediyurappa told that the state aims to take the vaccination to three lakh people per day. He said that the cases were more in Bangalore and Bidar districts. Around 1,400 hospitals have not started vaccination yet, but the CM assured the drive would speed up. He also suggested that the health officials should visit old-age homes and apartment complex to vaccinate people rather than forcing them to go to hospitals.