Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Saturday announced that COVID-19 vaccines will be available free of cost across India in the first phase of the immunisation campaign.
“Free vaccine shall be provided across the nation to most prioritised beneficiaries that incl 1 crore healthcare & 2 crore frontline workers,” the Minister tweeted.
This announcement by Dr Harsh Vardhan comes as India gets ready to launch the world’s largest immunisation drive.
A dry run of COVID-19 vaccination is being run at 259 sites, across 116 districts, the Health Ministry said on Saturday. This dry run will determine the efficiency of CoWIN (COVID-19 Vaccine Intelligence Network) and the plans to introduce a full-fledged vaccination drive in India.
Referring to the rumours spread during the Polio vaccination drive of 1994, Dr Harsh Vardhan via ANI urged people to not believe in rumours as safety wouldn’t be compromised.
“I want to appeal to people to not believe in any rumors. Our prime criteria in the vaccine trial is the safety and efficacy and nothing will be compromised,” Vardhan said after reviewing the dry run at a government hospital.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain said vaccines will be free in the national capital, ANI reported. On this the Union Health Minister added, “Not just in Delhi, it will be free across the country.”
The Delhi Minister has further said that the state government has so far made preparations to vaccinate one lakh people in a day, PTI reported.
A total of 19,079 people tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, while the death toll due to the disease climbed to 149,218 in the country, according to the Health Ministry’s data, released on Saturday.
