India To Begin World's Largest Vaccination Drive On Jan 16: All Your Questions Answered
On January 16, India is set to begin the world's largest vaccination drive, prime minister Narendra Modi said. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's Covid-19 dashboard, India has 2,22,526 active cases of infection.
On January 16, India is set to begin the world's largest vaccination drive, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's COVID-19 dashboard (Jan 12, 8 AM IST), India has 2,16,558 active cases of infection.
Over 1,00,92,909 patients have been discharged after undergoing treatment while the virus has killed over 1,15,160 across the country so far.
Reuters
On January 2, the Central Drugs and Standards Committee (CDSCO) approved the University of Oxford's Covishield and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin for emergency use in India.
Each dose of Covishield vaccine to cost Rs 200
Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) fixed the price for each dose of its Covid-19 vaccine Covishield at Rs 200 (Rs 210 with GST).
The vaccine manufacturer dispatched the first doses of the vaccine on Monday.
The government has placed an order for 1.1 crore doses of the vaccine while committing to procure 4.5 crore more by April of this year. These orders will cost the Union Government Rs 1,176 crore at the current rates.
30 crore people to be vaccinated first
In his address, PM Modi said India will approve more vaccines in the second phase of the vaccination drive.
Reuters
Taxpayers will bear the cost of the vaccinating three crore health care and frontline workers in the first phase.
"We would have been in a problem had we only depended on vaccines coming from other countries, they are very expensive. Our vaccines are more cost-effective", PM Modi said.
Speaking at the interaction with CMs on vaccination rollout. https://t.co/gbWZ4LsQGB
¡ª Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 11, 2021
Indians aged above 50 and those with comorbidities will get the vaccine in the second phase, the PM said.
Some states like Delhi and West Bengal have announced that the vaccine will be made available to residents free of cost. However, there is not enough clarity if the vaccine will be free for everyone who wants to get a jab.
