New Delhi: As the government extended the vaccination drive to all adults of the nation beyond 18 years, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal announced free vaccination.
Mr. Kejriwal declared,” Delhi government has decided to provide free vaccines to everyone above 18 years of age. Today we have given the approval for the purchase of 1.34 crore vaccines. We will make an effort to ensure that it is purchased soon and administered at the earliest to people.” This norm will be applicable only to the Delhi Government-run hospitals. All private hospitals will charge for the jab.
Mr. Kejriwal urged vaccine-makers to bring down the prices for state governments. In his urge to vaccine producers, he said, “I appeal to vaccine manufacturers to bring down the price to ₹ 150/dose. You have an entire lifetime to earn profits. This is not the time to do that when there is a raging pandemic. I also appeal to the Central government to cap the price (of vaccines) if needed.” He further said,” One vaccine producer said that they’ll provide vaccines to the state governments at ₹ 400 a dose and the second producer said that they’ll provide at ₹ 600 a dose. Both of them will keep the price at ₹ 150 a dose for the central government. I hope the prices remain the same for all.”
Announcing its next phase of the vaccination, the Centre amended vaccination procurement policy issuing a green signal to states and private hospitals to purchase vaccines directly from the manufacturers. Covaxin and Covi-shield announced higher prices for states and private entities than the rates at which the Centre had been buying them so far Rs 150. The Centre insists that it will continue to provide vaccines to states free of cost.