Govt announces next phase of vaccination for all above 18 yrs of age

The Central government on Monday decided to start COVID-19 vaccination for every one above the age of 18 years from May 1. The government announced a "Liberalised and Accelerated" Phase 3 Strategy of Covid-19 Vaccination.

The announcement comes after a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where it was noted that the "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."

In this phase, the government pointed out that pricing, procurement, eligibility and administration of vaccines are being made flexible. All stakeholders given the flexibility to customise to local needs.

Under the third phase of the vaccination drive commencing next month, the vaccine manufacturers would supply 50% doses to the Central government and would be free to supply the remaining 50% doses to state governments and in the open market.

Manufacturers would have to fix a price for the 50% supply that would be available to the state governments and in the open market before May 1, 2021, an official statement said.

Based on this price, state governments, private hospitals, industrial establishments, etc. would be able to procure vaccine doses from the manufacturers.

Vaccination will continue as before in the Government of India vaccination centres free of cost to the eligible population — healthcare and frontline workers and all people above 45 years of age.

Centre, from its share, will allocate vaccines to States/UTs based on the criteria of extent of infection (number of active Covid cases) & performance (speed of administration). Wastage of vaccine will also be considered in this criteria and will affect the criteria negatively. Based on the above criteria, State-wise quota would be decided and communicated to the States adequately in advance.

Second dose of all healthcare and frontline workers, and the population above 45 years, would be given priority.

The country's  COVID-19 vaccination drive started on 16 January, 2021. As of Monday, India has administered 12.4 crore doses of vaccine. Several States have complained of shortages and having to close down vaccination centres.

Meanwhile, according to the Health Ministry, India reported 2,73,810 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of positive cases in the country to 1,50,61,919. There are currently 19,29,329 active cases in the country as of Monday.

The death toll reached 1,78,769 with additional 1,619 fatalities.

In the last 24 hours, as many as 1,44,178 people recovered from the virus. With this, the total number of recoveries reached 1,29,53,821 in India.

Source: livemint.com, thehindu.com, livelaw.in

Written by Siddhant Sharma