People of Hyderabad have welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to provide 75 per cent of the COVID vaccine doses to the State governments free of cost.
Speaking to ANI, Ratna Rani, Deputy Project Officer, Musheerabad Vaccination Centre said, "There is a shortage of vaccines and States are unable to procure by themselves. The central government's move will help state governments in speeding up the vaccination drive."
A vaccine recipient said the central government's decision will ramp up the COVID vaccination drive.
"Prime Minister fixing the service charges of private hospitals to Rs 150 will help many people to get vaccinated as these hospitals cannot charge an extra price," another beneficiary told ANI.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced that the Centre will provide free COVID-19 vaccine to all Indian citizens above 18 years of age from June 21 and it will handle the 25 per cent vaccination that was with states till now under the liberalised plan announced earlier.
In a televised address to the nation, the Prime Minister said the Centre will procure 75 per cent of the total production of the vaccine doses and provide them free to the states. No state government would be spending anything on the vaccines.
The liberalised vaccination policy had come into effect from May 1 in which all people above 18 years were made eligible for vaccination. The policy entailed the Centre getting 50 per cent vaccine supply and 50 per cent to be procured under 'other than Government of India channel'.Many Chief Ministers had over the past few days urged the Centre to procure vaccines and supply to them due to procurement constraints faced by them.
The Prime Minister had said that both the Centre and states will start working on new guidelines in two weeks.
"A decision has been taken today that 25 per cent of vaccination work that was with states, that responsibility will also be taken by the Centre. It will be implemented in the coming two weeks. Both the State and Central government will work as per new guidelines in the coming two weeks," he had said.
( With inputs from ANI )
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