NEW DELHI: Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, Government of India, and Ravi Shankar Prasad, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India, informed press that the Central Cabinet has decided to start vaccination drive for people above 60 years of age from March 1. Javadekar added that people above 60 years of age and those above 45 with any comorbities can receive the vaccine shots in the next round of the COVID-19 vaccine roll out.
The ministers, at the press briefing on Wednesday, February 24, informed everyone that COVID-19 vaccine shots can be accessed from government centres free of cost and those wanting to get vaccinated from private hospitals will have to pay. The payable amount for vaccine is still being negotiated between the government, the manufacturers, and hospitals. Javadekar said that the second phase of the world’s largest vaccination drive will entail administration of vaccines in 10,000 government medical facilities and in 20,000 private hospitals across the nation.
According to a government official, sign-ups for the second phase of vaccination will be allowed through the Aarogya Setu mobile application, in which, under the Co-WIN section, people can register and book an appointment for vaccination. For patients with comorbid conditions, the government will soon release a list of qualifying diseases. The official added that with time, there will be a web portal for registration, helplines, interactive voice response (IVR) system option made available, especially for people with basic phones.
The official also mentioned that sign-ups for the second phase will open in a few days and people after receiving first dose can download a QR-code based certificate through the mobile app, along with the awareness material about vaccines and vaccine related statistics. Dr SK Sarin, Director, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, who also headed the Delhi government’s first committee on controlling and managing COVID-19 infections, said that so far, India has immunized only 1 per cent of its population and at this pace, it will never be able to achieve the target even by the end of the year, and that the governments need to speed up the vaccination drive by least six to ten times.