On Wednesday, the Central Government announced that COVID-19 vaccination drive for citizens aged 60 or above and for those over 45 with comorbidities. This drive is set to begin from March 1,2021.
This information was given by Union Minister Prakash Javadekar at a press conference. In that he said that vaccinations will be given at free of cost at around 10,000 government centres across the country.
In that he also mentioned that those who are uncomfortable with government centres will be able to get vaccinated at around 20,000 private centres but will have to pay their own money for the vaccine.
Javadekar added "The amount they(beneficiaries) would need to pay will be decided by the Union Health ministry within 3 to 4 days as it is in discussion manufacturers and hospitals."
So far around 1.2 Crore health and Frontline workers have been vaccinated in around 2.5 lakh sessions. These includes around 64 lakh Healthcare Workers (first dose), 14 lakh Healthcare Workers (second dose) and around 42 lakh Frontline workers (first dose).
This announcement by the central government comes at a crucial time when atleast 5 states including Maharashtra and Kerala are seeing a sudden surge in number of cases. Due to this a fear of another lockdown has started to toss up in minds of people.
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