Free Vaccination campaign for people above 60 years & 45 years from March

The second phase of COVID-19 vaccination campaign will start from 1 March for those who all are above 60 years of age and also people who are 45 years old with co-morbidities. Addressing the media on the cabinet decisions on Wednesday, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said that in the second phase there will be 10,000 government centers and 20,000 private centers.

To whom the Vaccination will be free?

Vaccination will be free for those going to government facilities.

The Union Minister said that

“The Government of India will pay for them. The central government will buy the necessary supplements and distribute them to the states.”

To Whom the vaccination will not be free?

The vaccine will not be free for those taking the vaccine from private facilities. They have to pay for the vaccine.

After discussions with manufacturers and hospitals, the amount for the vaccine will be decided by the Ministry of Health and will be announced within three to four days.

Javadekar said that there are about 100 million people over the age of 60 years in India. So far, 1.7 crore people have been vaccinated in the first phase of vaccination, where frontline workers and healthcare workers were eligible to take the shot, the minister said.

The Union Minister shared that 14 lakh people have been given the second dose. Vaccination was free for healthcare and front-line workers.

A consolidated report of Vaccination drive:

According to a provisional report, a total of 1, 19, 07,392 vaccine doses have been given through 2, 53,434 sessions as of 6 pm on Tuesday evening.
Almost 64,71,047 health workers took the first dose. 13,21,635 HCWs took the second dose. And 41,14,710 frontline workers took the first dose.
The nationwide vaccination campaign was already started from 16 January. But the vaccination for Front Line Workers began on 2 February.
Till 23rd February, a total of 8,557 sessions were held.

The Ministry is of the saying that –

“A total of 1,61,840 vaccine doses were given till 6 pm on Tuesday, the 39th day of nationwide COVID-19 vaccination. Out of which, 98,382 beneficiaries were vaccinated for 1st dose and 63,458 HCWs received 2nd dose of vaccine as per the provisional report.”

The ministry said five adverse events related to the first dose of vaccination (AEFI) and three cases of AEFI related to the second dose of vaccine were reported.

At a glance:

Total of 1,19,07,392 beneficiaries were vaccinated of which