Tamil Nadu CM E Palaniswami Announces Free Covid Vaccine For Citizens After BJP Promises The Same In Bihar

"Once COVID-19 vaccine is ready, it will be provided to all people of the state free of cost," announced E Palaniswami the Chief Minister, whose state is due for election next year.

(File Photo/ PTI)

New Delhi: Hours after the Bhartiya Janata Party’s (BJP) promised free Coronavirus vaccine to every citizen of Bihar in its election manifesto which irked nationwide objections, Tamil Nadu government also announced that it will provide free vaccination to its citizens. "Once COVID-19 vaccine is ready, it will be provided to all people of the state free of cost," announced E Palaniswami the Chief Minister, whose state is due for election next year. E Palaniswami became the accidental Chief Minister after the death of Jayalalitha in 2016. The upcoming state assembly elections would be the first for Palaniswami as a chief ministerial candidate for the AIADMK. Reacting to Palaniswami's statement, DMK’s spokesperson A Saravanan said, "We will win the elections and it will be the DMK government that would give out the free Covid vaccine in Tamil Nadu next year". The BJP’s announcement of free Covid-19 vaccine has become hugely controversial, with opposition parties denouncing the poll promise. Rahul Gandhi took to twitter taunting the BJP wrote on twitter, "GOI just announced India's Covid access strategy. Kindly refer to the state-wise election schedule to know when will you get it, along with a hoard of false promises." "What about non-BJP ruled states? Indians who didn't vote BJP will not get free Covid vaccine?" said Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. India is currently working on 4 different vaccine candidates, out of which two are indigenously developed. Indigenously developed Zydus Cadila’s ZyCovD and Bharat Biotech and ICMR’s Covaxin are in the mid stage clinical trials. Meanwhile, Serum Institute has partnered with Astra-Zeneca are in the third stage clinical trials wity their vaccine. Dr. Reddy’s Lab in partnership with RFID recently got permission from Drug Controller General of India to conduct mid and late stage clinical trials of Russian vaccine Sputnik V. India ranks second in the world with 7.71 million cases and 1.17 lakhs death. Though the country ranks second number of cases, recorded only 80 deaths per million due to the virus and the recovery rate stands at an astounding 88 per cent.