Goa announces free COVID vaccines to 18-45 year olds; orders 5 lakh COVISHIELD doses

As India prepares for Phase-3 of COVID vaccine rollout, Goa CM Pramod Sawant on Thursday, announced that his govt will vaccinate all adults in 18-45 years free of cost. He stated that 5 lakh doses will be initially purchased from Serum Institute of India, while altogether 15 lakh doses will be procured for a cost of Rs 60 crores. The island state has 9300 active COVID cases, while 60,571 have recovered and 943 have died till date.

Other states offer free vaccination

With Centre allowing vaccination of adult over 18 years from May 1, several states have promised free vaccination form adults 18-45 years. These include - Sikkim, Bihar, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. After Centre's 'liberalised' COVD vaccination plan, the Serum Institute of India (SII) stated that it would offer its vaccines to state govts at Rs 400 and to private hospitals at Rs 600.

Vaccination opened up for 18+

On Monday, Centre decided that everyone above the age of 18 to be eligible to get vaccine against Covid-19 and vaccine manufacturers will be incentivized to further scale up their production, as well as attract new national and international players. Vaccine manufacturers have been empowered to release up to 50% of their supply to state govts and in the open market at a pre-declared price. Private vaccination providers shall transparently declare their self-set vaccination price and eligibility through this channel would be opened up to all adults, i.e. everyone above the age of 18 years.

 Decentralising the vaccination process, Centre has empowered states to procure additional vaccine doses directly from the manufacturers, as well as open up vaccination to any category of people above the age of 18 for the same. The Centre's vaccination drive will continue as before, providing free vaccination for essential and priority populations as defined earlier i.e HCWs, FLWs and population above 45 years, with administering the second dose on priority. Govt of India, from its share, will allocate vaccines to States/UTs based on criteria of extent of infection (number of active COVID cases) & performance (speed of administration). India has administered 13,26,56,136 doses till date across India with 11,35,16,715 receiving the first dose.