Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday announced that people above 60 years of age will be vaccinated starting from March 1 in the second phase of inoculation. He said that those above 45 years of age with comorbidities will be vaccinated. The COVID-19 vaccine will be given for free at the government centres.
"From March 1, people above 60 years of age and those above 45 years of age with comorbidities will be vaccinated at 10,000 government and over 20,000 private vaccination centres. The vaccine will be given free of cost at the government centres," Javadekar said.
The minister said the vaccination facility will be available at private hospitals but will be a paid one. "Those who want to get vaccinated from private hospitals will have to pay. The amount they would need to pay will be decided by the Health Ministry within 3-4 days as they are in discussion with manufacturers and hospitals," Javadekar said.
AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria said people would be able to afford the vaccine. "Vaccines of both Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute are not very costly. I'm sure everyone would be able to afford it. It will allow people to come and get vaccinated the way they feel comfortable. A lot of vaccine hesitancy will be taken care of by this," Guleria said.
The Health Ministry had on Tuesday asked Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Chhattisgarh to expedite the vaccination of healthcare and frontline workers so as to confer immunity in the shortest possible time-frame in the wake of a rising trend of COVID-19 cases and positively rate in some districts.
India had launched the world's largest vaccination on January 16 with indigenously manufactured coronavirus vaccines -- Covaxin and Covishield. In the first phase, healthcare and frontline workers were being given vaccine shots.
First Published: Feb 24, 2021 3:43 PM IST
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