TV
The Central government has revised its guidelines for national COVID-19 vaccination drive, which is to be implemented from June 21. The decision was taken a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the Centre would be providing free vaccines to all persons above 18 years of age.
The Centre will now procure 75 per cent of the vaccines being produced by the manufacturers in the country. Under the revised guidelines, vaccine doses will be provided free of cost by the Government of India to the States - based on population, disease burden & vaccination' progress.
The government has said that it will provide States/UTs advance information of vaccine doses to be supplied to them. Vaccination will be prioritized in the following order - Health Care Workers, Front Line Workers, people above 45 years of age, people whose second dose is due and citizens of 18 years & above. In order to incentivize production by vaccine manufacturers and encourage new vaccines, domestic vaccine manufacturers have been given the option to provide vaccines directly to private hospitals.
The Centre directed states to monitor that only Rs 150 service charge is levied by the private hospitals over the prices fixed for each vaccine dose.
