New Delhi: Starting May 1 vaccination for above the age 18 could be availed announced Prime Minister Narendra Modi post a series of meetings on Monday.
All adults will be vaccinated in “a liberalised and accelerated Phase 3 strategy of COVID-19 vaccination”, the government said in a statement on a day India reported a new record high of 2.73 lakh cases in a day.India began inoculating people in January using two Covid vaccines – Serum Institute of India’s Covishield developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and Bharat Biotech’s made-in-India Covaxin. So far, the government had allowed vaccinations only for frontline workers and those above 45.
“Government has been working hard from over a year to ensure that maximum numbers of Indians are able to get the vaccine in the shortest possible of time,” PM Modi said. Pricing, procurement, eligibility and administering of vaccines will be flexible in the latest round of the world’s largest vaccination drive, the government said.
Vaccine manufacturers have been incentivized to scale up their production and release up to 50 per cent of their supply to state governments and in the open market at a declared price. States can now get additional vaccine doses directly from the manufacturers.
Vaccine manufacturers will supply 50 per cent of their monthly Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) released doses to the central government and will be free to supply the remaining 50% doses to state governments and in the open market.
Manufacturers will declaration prices in advance for the vaccines supplied to state governments and in open market. Based on this price, state governments, private hospitals, industrial establishments can buy vaccine doses from the manufacturers.
Vaccinations at central government centres, provided free of cost, will continue for previous categories – health workers, frontline workers and those above 45.
The Centre will allocate vaccines from its share to States or Union Territories based on the number of cases. Vaccine wastage can affect the quota of a state.The second dose for existing priority groups will be priority.
