STATES TOLD TO CHECK ‘VACCINE RUMOURS’

The Centre has asked state governments to “check vaccine rumours” and take penal actions against those indulging in spreading falsehood over the efficacy and safety of the Covid-19 vaccines.

“Such kind of rumour mongering, particularly by vested interests, can create unwarranted doubts among people at large, and there is, therefore, a need to check all kinds of unfounded scare-mongering relating to the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccines,” Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla has told the state governments. He added penal action may be taken against the persons or organisations found to have been indulged in rumour mongering under the relevant provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

On Monday, the 10th day of the vaccination drive, close to 3.35 lakh healthcare and frontline workers got inoculated. So far more than 19.5 lakh people have got the jab. There were 13,203 fresh cases of Covid-19 detected in the last 24 hours and 131 deaths were reported.

As per Union health ministry, India’s active caseload has fallen to 1.84 lakh and the share of active cases in the total positive cases has further shrunk to 1.73%. “A bulk of the active cases are contributed by merely two states. Kerala and Maharashtra alone account for more than 64.71% of the total active cases. Kerala accounts for 39.7% of the active cases whereas Maharashtra contributes 25% of the total active cases,” the health ministry said.