Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said the Centre will bear the expenses for the first phase of Covid-19 vaccination for health workers and frontline workers like the police, civil defence and sanitation workers, which will begin on January 16.
“The Centre, not states, will bear expenses for first-phase vaccination of three crore corona warriors and frontline workers,” PM Modi said after a meeting with chief ministers where he discussed the Covid-19 situation in states and preparedness for the vaccination programme.
“India’s vaccines are the most cost effective,” the Prime Minister said.
“The experience India has on vaccination will be very useful in vaccination process… We have to follow protocols during the entire process,” he said.
“In the second phase, those above 50 years and those under 50 years with co-morbid conditions will be vaccinated,” the PM said.
After the review meeting, Prime Minister Modi said the country’s scientists and medical experts have taken all precautions to provide our citizens with effective vaccines. He also urged the citizens of the country to keep taking precautions even after vaccine has been taken.
India’s drugs regulator recently approved two vaccines – Oxford-AztraZeneca’s Covishield and indigenously developed Covaxin of Bharat Biotech – for restricted emergency use in the country.
On Saturday last week, PM Modi had reviewed the status of Covid-19 and vaccine preparedness across states and union territories at a high-level meeting.
“Only about 2.5 crore people vaccinated globally so far. We have to achieve vaccination of 30 crore citizens in next few months,” the Prime Minister said.
He also directed state authorities to ensure that no rumours regarding vaccination get spread. “Social, religious groups need to be involved in this,” PM Modi said.
Talking about CoWin, an online platform for monitoring COVID-19 vaccine delivery, the PM said, “CoWin will ensure that people get the second dosage of the vaccine on time. The app will generate a digital certificate after the first dose of vaccine and a final certificate will be given to the person after the second dosage. The world will follow what India will do.”
