Congress president Sonia Gandhi asks partymen to play "active role in ensuring full vaccination coverage"

Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday expressed concern over the pace of vaccination in India, and said the country needs to prepare for the third wave of COVID-19 and protect children.

Addressing a meeting of party general secretaries and in-charges of AICC in various states, she the party must ensure that vaccine hesitancy is overcome and wastage of vaccines minimised. She exhorted the partymen to work actively in this regard. "...it is absolutely essential that our party plays an active role in ensuring full vaccination coverage. At the national level, the daily rate of vaccination has to treble so that 75% of our population gets fully vaccinated by end of this year", she said.

"No doubt, this is dependent entirely on the adequacy of vaccine supply. We must continue to put pressure on the Union government which has, at our party's insistence, finally taken on the responsibility for this," Sonia Gandhi added.

"At the same time, we have to ensure that registration takes place, that vaccine hesitancy wherever evident is overcome and vaccine wastage is minimised," she said addressing the party leaders virtually.

The Congress president also pointed out that experts have been talking about vulnerability of children during the third wave of the pandemic. "This too requires our urgent attention and we must take proactive measures so that they are spared this calamity. We have to take steps to be better prepared if and when this strikes. The second wave these past four months has been devastating for lakhs and lakhs of individual families all over the country. We must learn from this traumatic experience so that we do not have to experience it yet again," she said.

Sonia Gandhi also touched upon the constant fuel price rise and rise in prices of essential commodities. Mentioning the White Paper on COVID-19, which the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi released recently, she appreciated the partymen for "the efforts of so many of our colleagues in extending and mobilising relief during these past troubled months. The Youth Congress has deservedly drawn support for its outreach but there are Congressmen and Congresswomen across the country who have engaged themselves in relief activities."

She then highlighted how party is also coming up with control rooms, helplines and ambulances to assist the party workers in their efforts. The Congress president also asked the party workers for suggestions "on what more we should be doing as a party organisation."

With PTI inputs