India started its coronavirus vaccination campaign on January 16.
New Delhi:
Vaccines against the coronavirus will be capped at Rs 250 per injection in private hospitals and health centers, the Health Ministry said today. The vaccines will be free in all hospitals and government centers.
The government had said on Friday that it will allow people to choose their coronavirus vaccination centers when the campaign expands tomorrow to cover those over 60 and those over 45 with illnesses.
They can register through the government’s CoWIN 2.0 portal, the Aarogya Setu app, or enter vaccination centers; The states will also actively mobilize the people.
There are more than 10,000 private hospitals in the country that are licensed to distribute vaccines, in addition to all government hospitals and health centers.
Those over the age of 60 will only need to show their age identification, while those over 45 with chronic illnesses will need to obtain a form signed by a registered physician.
The country halted vaccinations this weekend to update the software used to coordinate its campaign, as it prepares to expand coverage beyond the 1.15 crore of health and frontline workers immunized since January 16.
But the inoculation campaign has progressed slower than expected due to the reluctance of frontline and healthcare workers to take the homegrown COVAXIN injection that was approved without late-stage efficacy data.
Only 11 percent of vaccinated people have opted for the product developed by Bharat Biotech and the Indian State Medical Research Council.
With the highest infection count in the world after the United States, India wants to vaccinate 30 of its 135 million people by August. The decision to give people the option of choosing centers, effectively allowing them to choose vaccines, could speed up deployment, officials believe.
“The fundamental change in this phase is that citizens in the identified age groups, as well as health workers and front-line workers who have been left out of the current phase of vaccination, can select the vaccination centers of your choice, “the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement.
Bharat Biotech has said that efficacy data from a late-stage trial in nearly 26,000 volunteers taking COVAXIN will be published soon. The company, along with India’s drug regulator, says COVAXIN is safe and effective, according to early and intermediate studies.
More vaccines are likely to be approved for use in the world’s second-most populous country in the coming months, including Russia’s Sputnik-V and Cadila Healthcare’s ZyCov-D.
In addition to questions about vaccines, the initial failures at CoWIN had also slowed India’s immunization campaign, forcing many states to go offline. The software is part of a government contact tracing application “Aarogya Setu”, or Health Bridge, downloaded so far by nearly 17 million people.
India’s infections increased by 16,488 in the last 24 hours to 1.10 crore, data from the Health Ministry show, while the number of deaths increased by 113 to reach 1.56,938.
(With input from Reuters)
.
