Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took a dig at the recent expansion of the Union Council of Ministers under the Narendra Modi-led government. On Sunday, he tweeted, “The number of ministers have increased, not vaccines.” Rahul Gandhi castigated the cabinet-expansion at the centre when the country is dealing with a shortage of vaccines

While taking jibes at the centre, Rahul Gandhi shared a chart illustrating the current status of vaccination in the country. As per the chart, 60 percent of the population must be fully vaccinated by December in order to stop the third wave of infections in India. The chart states that for this purpose, nearly 8.8 million doses must be administered daily.

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The chart shared by Rahul Gandhi further notes that a shortfall in the number of doses given each day would mean a rise in the required rate of vaccination. In India, on Saturday, July 10, 3.7 million doses were administered. This means that there was a shortfall of 5.1 million jabs. According to the chart, a similar pattern has been observed in the last seven days.

Rahul Gandhi’s dig comes after PM Modi introduced 36 new faces in the Union Cabinet, taking the tally to 78. The number is just a notch short of the statutory limit of 81.

The newly-appointed Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya essentially replaced Dr Harsh Vardhan at the helm of the coronavirus crisis. Mandaviya had on Thursday announced a Covid-19 Emergency Response and Health Preparedness package of Rs 23,123 crore. The CERHP package would include creation of paediatric units in all 736 districts, installation of 1,050 liquid medical oxygen storage tanks. It would also include expansion of the tele-consultation platform that will offer 5 lakh consultations per day.

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A total of 41,506 new coronavirus cases were reported on July 11 in India in the last 24 hours. Additionally, 895 Covid-related deaths were also recorded. As of Sunday morning, as many as 37,60,32,586 doses had been administered in the country. Out of them, 37,23,367 were given in the last 24 hours.

Latest research shows that the basic reproductive number denoted as R0 moved up significantly between June 20 and July 7. The BRN is an indicator of how fast the pathogen causing the Covid-19 pandemic is spreading. The findings on R0 could be an early signal of an impending potential surge in the number of cases.