Bihar vaccination numbers don’t add up
PATNA: Call it a clerical error or fudging of information, the Bihar government’s data of beneficiaries with regard to vaccination in the 18-44 age group throws up discrepancies in the numbers if one gives it a good look.Vaccination for the crucial18-44 age group began in Bihar from May 9 with a total of 79,238 beneficiaries on the inaugural day.
As per the Bihar government’s health department bulletins released from May 9 to 15, a total 6,09,287 people in the 18-44 age group got the jabs in theeastern state. But the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in its official Twitter handle, claimed that a total of 6,22,562 people were vaccinated in the same period.
The mismatch doesn’t end here. If the vaccination data of each day is added up, the number of beneficiaries in the same period is just 5,02,769, way below the figures claimed by both the state and the Centre.
Despite several attempts by this correspondent for an explanation, the state nodal officer on vaccination, Manoj Kumar, neither received calls nor replied to the queries sent to him through SMSes. Further, principal health secretary Pratyay Amrit was not available even after multiple efforts to clarify whether the discrepancies were a clerical mistake in calculation or something else.
Juxtaposing the mismatch in vaccination numbers with what Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav claimed recently throws some discomforting questions for the Bihar government. The RJD leader had asked the government to stop messing with the lives of the people by forging data on various counts from testing to vaccinations.
In February too, there were widespread allegations of fudging in Covid testing data in Bihar. Back then, Deputy CM Tarkishore Prasad had come out to defend the government It now remains to be seen who clears the confusion now.