Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said “a fair and inclusive” coronavirus vaccine access strategy should have been in place by now, adding that the Centre’s “unpreparedness” in dealing with the matter was “alarming”.

Gandhi made the statement in response to his August 14 tweet, in which he urged the Centre to develop an inclusive vaccine strategy. “India will be one of the Covid-19 vaccine-producing nations,” he wrote in his August 14 tweet. “It needs a clearly-defined, inclusive and equitable vaccine access strategy ensuring availability, affordability and fair distribution. GOI [Government of India] must do it now.”

On Tuesday, Indian Council of Medical Research Director General Professor Balram Bhargava had said that there were three potential coronavirus vaccines being developed rapidly in India. While Serum Institute’s vaccine was in phase 2(B) and phase 3 trials, the first phase trials for vaccines from Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila were completed, he added.

Gandhi has repeatedly attacked the central government for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic . On Wednesday, he claimed that the Reserve Bank of India’s predictions about the economic contractions amid the coronavirus pandemic was a confirmation of what he had been warning for months.

“RBI has now confirmed what I have been warning for months,” Gandhi had tweeted. In his latest barb against the government, Gandhi said that “creating distractions through media” will neither help the poor nor make the economic disaster disappear.

Last week, the Congress leader had warned that India will not be able to provide jobs to its youth because of the severe economic impact of the coronavirus. He claimed that his predictions would come true within six to seven months.

On August 9, he claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had failed to provide the two crore jobs every year that he promised. He also accused the Modi of enacting policies that “destroyed India’s economic structure”, and left many people jobless.