New Delhi: The second phase of corona vaccination drive in India – will start from March 1. People above the age of 60 will be eligible to get the coronavirus vaccines in the second phase.
The Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday afternoon announced that – in a second phase – vaccine shots will be administered at 10,000 government-run centers and 20,000 private centers in India.
“Private will charge the patients for the jabs and those going to government run centres – will be administered the vaccine for free,” Javadekar on the second anti-coronavirus vaccination drive in India.
Around 27 crore people are expected to be covered under this phase.
A statement given by the Javadekar on vaccination charges – he said that “The amount they would need to pay will be decided by the health ministry within 3-4 days as they are in discussion with manufacturers and hospitals.”
The government is planning to speed up the current vaccination drive which began on January 16. The urgency of ramping up the drive has been compounded by strong signs since last week that the country may be entering its second wave of Covid-19 infections.
In the first vaccination drive – sanitation workers, frontline workers, defence forces, Healthcare workers, police and other paramilitary forces are being vaccinated.
The second phase of the vaccination will also include armed forces and police personnel.
The government is using the Covishield vaccine developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and Covaxin of Bharat Biotech. India’s drug regulator approved these vaccines for the vaccination drive.
