Vaccine For All Above 18 Starting May 1

 Vaccinations will be opened to all above 18 from May 1, the government announced today after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a series of meetings over India's response to record daily surges in Covid cases.

 

All adults can get Covid shots and states can buy doses directly from vaccine-makers in the "liberalized and accelerated Phase 3 strategy of COVID-19 vaccination", the government said, on a day the country reported 2.73 lakh new daily cases in the highest spike since the pandemic broke out a year ago.

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 health workers, front line workers and those above 45 in a centrally-controlled process.

 

In his meetings today, PM Modi stressed that vaccination was "the biggest weapon" in the fight against the coronavirus and urged doctors to encourage more and more patients to get vaccinated.

"The government has been working hard for over a year to ensure that maximum numbers of Indians are able to get the vaccine in the shortest possible of time," said the PM.

Pricing, procurement, eligibility and administering of vaccines will be flexible in the latest round of the world's largest vaccination drive.

 

Here are some important new rules:

  • 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 doses to state governments and in the open market.
  • Manufacturers will declare 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 centers, provided free of cost, will continue for those eligible currently - health workers, front line workers and those above 45.
  • The center 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 those eligible currently will be priority.