COVID-19 Vaccine Will Be Free Across The Country, Says Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan
As India is all set to roll out what will be the world's largest immunisation programme against the COVID-19, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has said that the vaccine will be provided free of cost across the country.?
Asked if COVID-19 vaccine will be provided free of cost, like in Delhi, Vardhan replied that "not just in Delhi, it will be free across the country."?
Later he tweeted saying that said that one crore healthcare workers and two crore frontline workers would be given the free vaccine in the first phase of the inoculation drive.
"In the first phase of vaccination, free vaccine will be provided across the nation to most prioritised beneficiaries that include one crore healthcare and 2 crore frontline workers," Vardhan said in a tweet.
He, however, added, that the details of how the remaining 27 crore priority beneficiaries will be vaccinated till July is getting finalised.
The central government plans to vaccinate nearly 30 crore persons in the first phase of the immunisation drive. The vaccine will be administered to one crore healthcare workers, along with 2 crore frontline and essential workers, and 27 crore elderly, mostly above the age of 50 with comorbidities.
On Saturday all states and UTs across India conducted a dry run to evaluate the preparedness for the rollout.?
The dry run was conducted at 259 sites in all states and union territories to help officials practise how to manage vaccine supply, storage and logistics, including cold chain management.?
According to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW), the objective of the dry run for COVID-19 vaccine introduction is to "assess operational feasibility in the use of COVIDVaccine Intelligence Network (Co-WIN) application in a field environment, to test the linkages between planning and implementation and to identify the challenges and guide the way forward prior to actual implementation".
In December the Health Ministry had said that getting vaccinated against COVID-19 will be voluntary but added that it was advisable to receive a complete schedule of the anti-coronavirus vaccine irrespective of past history of infection as this will help in developing a strong immune response against the disease.
Several states and UTs including Delhi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu had already announced that the COVID-19 vaccine will be made available for free in their respective territories irrespective of the central government's decision on it.
On Friday, an expert panel had cleared the Oxford AstroZenica vaccine, which will be manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) under the name Covishield.
Another domestic drug maker Bharat Biotech who has co-developed Covaxin with ICMR is also likely to get clearance in the coming days.?
