NT NETWORK
Panaji
The Indian Medical Association’s Goa branch on Wednesday denied the claim that the association has threatened the government to withdraw from the ongoing first phase of the COVID-19 vaccination programme.
Speaking to ‘The Navhind Times’ IMA-Goa president Vinayak Buvaji said that ‘misleading’ information is being presented as news in a section of media with an ulterior motive to either defame IMA or to derail the vaccination programme.
“There is no question of withdrawing…what is being reported is completely rubbish. We are with the government in the fight against COVID-19. We are and we will continue to be part of the vaccination drive,” he said.
Dr Buvaji informed that the IMA representatives have raised grievances before the concerned government authorities including District Collector about the non-registration of its members on CoWIN portal.
“We have been told that names of our list can’t be uploaded on the portal as it has been frizzed, and we feel that there could be many reasons including technical glitches but also fabricated news reports about private hospitals inoculating non-health care workers (HCW) may have compelled the authorities to freeze the portal,” he said.
“The government is on record to say that they have not received any complaint against any private hospital. We have urged the government to consider uploading the remaining names submitted by us on the CoWIN portal,” he added.
The IMA has suggested to the government to appoint an observer for every inoculation venues for authentication of HCWs and to avoid any misuse of vaccine shots.
Dr Buvaji claimed that there are approximately 20,000 HCWs in Goa including both private and public sector of which only around 5,000 of HCWs have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
“Of the remaining 15,000 if 3,000 HCWs’ names are missing or deleted then rest 12,000 needed to be covered and it will be difficult to finish the primary task on or before February 12, 2021. With addition of frontline workers, the list will only get inflated and it will lead to chaos,” he explained.
Dr Buvaji said that IMA has offered a helping hand for promotion of vaccination amongst the general public after the first phase of vaccination drive.
“We have told the authorities that we will need the list of vaccination booths in advance so that we can physically go to the place and make a positive dialogue with the public,” he said.