The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday decided to administer COVID-19 vaccine free of cost to all those above 18 years of age from May 1. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The Cabinet also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allowing the administering of coronavirus vaccine to those above 18 years of age.
“The PM’s decision will help in better management of COVID and massive vaccination will help in defeating coronavirus. We have decided to vaccinate all above 18 years free of cost. The state government will take forward the vaccination programme with its own resources,” the CM said, according to a statement.
Meanwhile, a former IAS officer on Tuesday urged the UP chief minister to junk the need of a CMO’s letter for the purpose. Retired IAS officer Surya Pratap Singh, known for being vocal on various social issues, made the plea to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in a tweet, attaching the viral video to it. “Yogi Ji, you are a saint. I request you with folded hands to remove this mandatory requirement of a CMO’s letter for admission of a patient to a Covid-facility,” Singh said in his tweet.
“Tears rolled down my eyes after seeing this scene,” said Singh alluding to the video of a man seen in a video lying before the Lucknow chief medical officer’s vehicle to get his Covid-positive mother admitted to a hospital. In the video tweeted by Singh, the distraught man was also heard crying that his mother’s condition was deteriorating but he was unable to get her admitted to any hospital. UP Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh, however, appeared to be favouring the system for having a CMO’s letter for admission to an anti-Coviod facility.
“Whenever a Covid-19 patient is registered with a control command centre, a slip is made and the patient is either sent for home isolation or to a hospital for treatment,” UP Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh told PTI, explaining the system for admission of a patient in an anti-Covid facility in the state.
“A patient goes to the hospital after the hospitals are consulted, and the bed is allotted to the patient. On the allotment letter, the centre’s official has to sign, otherwise which hospital will admit the patient? And the person who signs the slip is the CMO,” Singh elaborated. Apparently favouring the system, the minister added that an officer of the level of additional director has been put above the CMO to monitor the Covid-19 treatment. “If there is no signature of the official on the slip, then how will the payment be made (to the hospitals)?” he asked.
