Covid-19: Uttar Pradesh, Assam and other states announce free vaccination to all above 18 age group
The third phase of vaccination is very critical as this phase allows maximum population to come forward and take the jab.
With the massive rise of second wave of Covid-19, getting vaccinated has become paramount. The number of cases in India reported on daily basis have reached as high as 3 lakh. The utmost priorty now is to save each and every life by speedfasting India’s vaccination drive. Keeing this in mind, the government declared vaccination for those above 18 years of age, from 1st of May. In his recent address to the nation, PM Narendra Modi, stressed upon the fact that the key to fight this pandemic is by strengthening the health infrastructure and boosting the vaccination drive to majority Indians. The centre government has right now kept free vaccines for people above the age of 45, frontline and health workers. But many state governments are now announcing free vaccines for all elgible age groups, that is to even those above 18 years of age.
The third phase of vaccination is very critical as this phase allows maximum population to come forward and take the jab. This phase will also pan out other things like the pricing of the vaccine, state-wise procurement and number of people getting vaccinated.
Now that 50% of the vaccine produced will be supplied directly to the hospitals, there are chances of a price hike as well. There have been reports, that people might have to pay more than Rs. 250 per dose in private hospitals.
Which States Are Providing Free Vaccine?
Assam and Uttar Pradesh have announced free vaccines to everyone above the age of 18. Other states have also joined the banwagon. Sikkim, Bihar, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan being few of them.
The Health Minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma declared that funds collected in Asom Arogya Nidhi account last year will be utilised for procuring the vaccines. The Minister also announced that the state has already placed an order of 1 crore doses with Bharat Biotech. Assam has given 14.16 lakh doses in the first phase and 3.55 lakh doses in the second phase of the vaccination drive.
Just like Assam, in Uttar Pradesh too, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced free vaccines for everybody above the age of 18. Being India’s most populous state, UP is severaly affected with over 2,00,000 active Covid-19 cases. The state’s total vaccine tally is 1.1 crore doses from which 93.56 lakh doses were administered in the first phase. The heads of other states like Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh also shared on twitter that they will keep the vaccination free for all and requested centre to ensure its availabilty. On the other hand, Maharashtra Government is planning on the import of foreign vaccines like Sputnik-V, Pfizer & Moderna.
Ramping-Up Vaccine Production
To ramp-up the vaccine production in India the Government has approved a payment of Rs. 4500 crores to vaccine manufacturers like Serum Institute of India (SII) & Bharat Biotech. Out of the total amount, Serum Institute will be allotted Rs. 3000 crore whereas the remaining Rs. 1500 crore would go to Bharat Biotech. According to sources Serum Institute will supply 200 million doses and Bharat Biotech will supply 90 crore doses at a pre-agreed rate of 150 rupees by July end.
How Much Vaccine Will Be Produced?
Krishna Ella, Chairman & Managing Director of Bharat Biotech announced that in the coming month Bharat Biotech is all set to develop 3 crore ‘Covaxin’ doses. In the month of March the company had manufactured 1.5 crore doses and had announced to ramp-up the production to 70 crore doses per year. Maharashtra’s Haffkine Institute has also got the permission to manufacture Covaxin. The state government has granted Rs. 150 crore for the expansion of this plant, which is situated in Parel, Mumbai. This plant is supposed to manufacture 22.4 crore of covaxin doses annually through technology transfer.
The total number of vaccines administered in India is more than 13 crore. On 20th April, approximately 30 lakh have been vaccinated. Out of which, 19.86 lakh have received the first jab & 10.03 lakh have received the second vaccine jab.