Coronavirus vaccines will be capped at ₹ 250 per shot at private hospitals and health centres, while vaccines will be free in all government hospitals and centres.
On Saturday, the Health Ministry said that coronavirus vaccines will be capped at ₹ 250 per shot at private hospitals and health centres, while vaccines will be free in all government hospitals and centres.
On Friday, the government had said that it will let people choose their coronavirus vaccination centres when the drive expands Monday to cover those over 60 and those over 45 with illnesses.
While states will actively mobilise people for vaccination, they can also register through the government’s CoWIN 2.0 portal, the Aarogya Setu app, or walk into vaccination centres.
Apart from all government hospitals and health centres, there are more than 10,000 private htospitals in the country that are cleared to give out vaccines.
While people over 60 will have to only show their identification with age, those over 45 with chronic illnesses will have to get a form signed by a registered medical practitioner.
The vaccination drive was halted this weekend by the government to upgrade software used to coordinate its campaign, as it moves beyond the 1.15 crore health and front-line workers vaccinated since January 16.
The inoculation campaign, however, has progressed slower than expected due to a reluctance of health and front-line workers to take the home-grown COVAXIN shot that was approved without late-stage efficacy data.
Only 11% of the vaccinated health and frontline workers opted for the Covaxin, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech and the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research.
With the world’s highest tally of infections after the United States, India, by August, wants to vaccinate 30 of its 135 crore people. Officials believe that the decision to give people a choice to choose centres, effectively being allowed to choose vaccines could speed up the roll-out.
“The fundamental shift in this phase is that citizens in the identified age groups, as also those healthcare workers and frontline who have been missed out or left out of the present phase of vaccination, can select vaccination centres of their choice,” the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement.
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