Dead citizens ‘vaccinated’ in Gujarat's Dahod district

VADOODARA: Vaccination of dead persons seems to be becoming a routine. In Dahod district, family members of an elderly man and a woman, who were no more, got messages regarding their vaccination on Sunday.
The first incident came to light when Naresh Desai, son of Natwarlal Desai received a message that his father had been vaccinated. Natwarlal Desai had passed away at an age of 93 years in 2011 when Covid-19 was unheard of.He would have been a centenarian now.
It also came to light that Natwarlal Desai’s name did not figure in the list of persons vaccinated on Monday. The message was also received at around 8.50 am on Sunday even before the vaccination began.
A probe was ordered in the matter and primary details have revealed that the PAN number of the deceased man was same as his granddaughter who had been vaccinated. “We have sought details from the income tax department in this regard,” said Dahod district collector Vijay Kharadi.
But the officials are still looking into how the deceased man’s name figured in the message instead of his granddaughter’s. They expect to get more details by Tuesday.
The second such case came to light in Limdi town of Zalod taluka in the district. Here Nipul Sharma received a message on Sunday that his mother Madhu Sharma (72) was vaccinated. The woman had died on April 15 due to a heart attack.
Nipul said that his mother received the first dose of the vaccine on March 2 and had the heart attack around the time for the second dose. “She died and never took the second dose,” he said adding that he inquired with the local government hospital and was told that no vaccination was happening there.
Dahod chief district health officer Dr R D Pahadiya said that the officials were looking into the Limdi incident. “We are trying to ascertain the reason behind the message,” he said.