28 February 2021 05:45 pm
The Government is using the VIP lists instead of a priority list when administering COVID-19 vaccine, JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake charged today.
He told a news conference that the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that when a country receives a small volume of vaccines, that should be used to minimize the number of deaths.
He said National Vaccine Deployment Plan in our country was formulated to minimize the deaths caused by COVID-19 and added that the government has failed to follow the priority list as finalised by the health authorities.
“The health services employees, security forces and police were on top of the priority list. People over 60 and people with chronic diseases were next in the list. We should have used the first consignment of 500,000 doses of vaccines according to this priority list. But, the vaccination drive is done according to a VIP list.
Parliamentarians got the vaccines before others. When the general public are languishing in queues for several hours, people with political allegiance come through the back-door and get the vaccines,” he alleged.
Mr. Dissanayake urged the government to provide the vaccines which are due in the future according to the National Vaccine Deployment Plan.(Ajith Siriwardana)