Error happened since beneficiary had registered when he was alive, Centre said (Representational)
The government Thursday dismissed as "baseless" allegations that dead people were issued vaccination certificates on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday and clarified that there was a case in Madhya Pradesh due to an "inadvertent error" by a vaccinator as the beneficiary had registered for the inoculation when he was alive.
On September 17 - PM Modi's birthday, a record 2.5 crore vaccine doses were administered in the country.
Responding to a question that in some states, dead people were allegedly issued vaccine certificates while in some, pending data was added to boost the numbers, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan told a media briefing, "That was an instance in Madhya Pradesh and we found that the registration was done when the person was alive, and on the date when the person was supposed to come for vaccination, unfortunately, the person died."
"There was an inadvertent error by the vaccinator in pressing the button in front of that name, so that error happened which has subsequently been corrected," he added.
On allegations that pending data was entered which added to the numbers on PM Modi's birthday, he said the allegations are baseless.
"The allegation of delayed data entry was made with respect to Bihar. We got it checked, and we found it to be absolutely baseless. Bihar on an average inoculates 3-5 lakh people a day, but it would be something totally unrealistic to say that they are not given digital certificates, they will not receive SMS and that data would not be uploaded," Mr Bhushan said.
"We have asked the news channels and media houses which had done this story. If they could share specific details of villages and names of people, and we are still waiting for those details...," he added.