Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Monday that the Central government will provide vaccines free of cost to all the states in the country in a switch back to the policy that was in operation before May 1. This would help accelerate further the inoculation drive in the country as free vaccines would now be available to inoculate everyone.

He said some states had earlier sought autonomy and wanted to buy vaccines on their own so the Centre had given them the freedom to procure 25 per cent of the vaccines. However, the system has not worked and these very states have now veered around to the stand that the earlier policy in which the Centre procured vaccines delivered better results.

The Prime Minister said the Centre would step up the procurement of vaccines and make them available free of cost to the states as part of the reversion to the old policy which would come into effect within two weeks.

“No state government will have to spend any money on vaccines, as the Centre was taking up the entire responsibility for procuring the doses and the new guidelines will come into force on June 21,” the Prime Minister said. 

He said those among the rich who did not want to avail of the free vaccines will have the option of going to private hospitals which will be allowed to procure 25% of the vaccines being produced. However, private hospitals will not be allowed to charge more than Rs 150 for administering a dose of the vaccine, he said.

Availability being stepped up

PM Modi said as many as 7 companies were now manufacturing vaccines and another three vaccines were undergoing last stage trials and are expected to be cleared for use very soon. In addition, the government was in talks with overseas companies to import vaccines.

The PM said two vaccines are also being tried out in children and if a nasal vaccine that is being developed in India comes out in the near future, the inoculation drive will get a further boost.  

“Every dose of vaccine is important. A life is associated with one dose. States will be informed about the number of doses they will be getting a week prior to the supply. There shouldn't be differences and debates over vaccines.” The Prime Minister remarked.

“A lot of demands were raised that the states should get rights for their own Covid management. We accepted their demands. States demanded vaccine decentralisation. Questions were raised on age group, questions were raised on why senior citizens were vaccinated first. After giving it a lot of thought, we changed the way vaccinations were done. So, we gave 25 % of the work to the states, but now the Central government is taking up the entire responsibility of providing vaccines again,” PM Modi explained. 

Free foodgrains for poor

The Prime Minister also said that Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana under which free foodgarins are being provided to the poor will be  extended till Diwali. The government is with the poor during this pandemic. Over 80 crore people will get ration till November, he added.

The PM said, “ India was amongst the few countries to produce vaccines at such a fast rate which is a big achievement, but it has its limitations. Vaccination first started only in a few developed countries. We started our vaccination drive based on the parameters set by the WHO. After taking recommendations, it was decided that the vulnerable population will be vaccinated first, which is why frontline workers, healthcare professionals and those above 45 were vaccinated first, he added.

The whole country was talking about how we are going to save such a huge population. In a year, we launched 2 made-in-India vaccines. Over 23 crore people have been inoculated so far. We can achieve success only when we believe in ourselves. We had faith in our scientists, which is why when they were doing their research, we prepped the logistics… We constituted the vaccine task force last year, when there were only a few Covid cases.

Whether they were ICU beds, ventilators, the health infrastructure was ramped up. During the second wave in April-May, there was an unbelievable demand for the medical oxygen. We ran Oxygen express, IAF and Navy were involved, the production was increased ten-fold to meet the emergency situation, he pointed out.

The PM also pointed out that the anti-Covid protocol is the most important factor in the fight against this invisible coronavirus. A vaccine is like a protection cover against this…”Imagine what would have been the scenario if we didn't have an India-made vaccine,” he remarked.