Sri Lankan PM Rajapaksa sends wishes to Manmohan Singh after COVID-19 diagnosis

Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on April 20 wished former Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh a "speedy recovery" following his COVID-19 diagnosis. 88-year-old former PM and senior Congress leer was mitted to All India Insitute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Trauma Centre, New Delhi after testing positive for COVID-19 on April 19. Leers across party lines have wished for Singh’s speedy recovery. Rajapaksa also said that his prayers are with former PM.

Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan on April 20 said that he followed up on former PM’s health with team that is attending Singh at AIIMS Delhi. Vardhan said that Singh’s condition is stable and "best possible" care is currently being provided to him while praying for his quick recovery. Singh’s COVID-19 diagnosis came as India continues to record an uptick of fresh coronavirus infections. For past three days, nation has registered excess of two lakh COVID-19 infections and over 1,000 deaths on a daily basis. 

Manmohan Singh writes to PM Modi

Singh’s diagnosis came a day after he wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday to “resist temptation to look at absolute number of vaccinations and focus on percentage of population vaccinated.” senior Congress leer, in a letter to PM Modi also listed suggestions for consideration “in spirit of constructive cooperation” including publicising firm orders for doses placed on various vaccine manufacturers and allowing states more flexibility to plan roll-out of jabs. 

"First, government should publicise what are firm orders for doses placed on different vaccine producers and accepted for delivery over next six months.  If we want to vaccinate a target number in this period, we should place enough orders in vance so that producers can here to an agreed schedule of supply," Manmohan Singh wrote in his letter. 

After suggesting that Centre should retain at least 10% of vaccine doses for emergency needs, Singh said, “states should be given some flexibility to define categories of frontline workers who can be vaccinated even if y are below 45 years of age” among total five prolonged suggestions.

Image credits: PTI/AP