The second phase of Corona vaccination in the country will commence from 1st March onwards. Inoculation drive will be carried out in 10 thousand government centers along with 20 thousand private hospitals. The vaccines in this phase will be given to those who are sick and are above 45 years in age as well as to all those people who are above 60 years in age.
Those who belong to the above mentioned categories can get their vaccination done for free of cost if they visit to the government centers, but apart from this if they visit to the private hospitals in order to get themselves vaccinated then they will have to pay for their vaccinations.
Charges for private hospitals to be announced
Javadekar said that these vaccinations will be free at government centers, but those who want to get vaccinated in private hospitals will have to pay a charge. In the next 3-4 days, the Ministry of Health will decide on what fees will have to be paid for vaccination in private hospitals. The Ministry of Health is holding negotiations with the manufacturers as well as with the hospitals in this regard.
Also read: Indian Vaccines: A ‘Silver Lining’
India ranked 5th in total vaccination
Many countries around the world, especially China, started vaccination in June last year and Russia in August. At the same time, the vaccine started in December in most countries including America, Britain. The vaccination drive in India commenced on 16 January. Though initially we were working at a good pace but when it is viewed in respect to our massive population then we are still miles away from our goal. As of 22 February, 21 crore people worldwide have been vaccinated. Maximum 6.41 crore people are vaccinated in America. After this, 4.05 crore in China, 2.7 crore in European Union, 1.8 crore in UK and 1.19 crore in India have been vaccinated.
According to the Firstpost, if the inoculation drive in India is carried out at the rate of even at half a million vaccinations per day — higher than the current overall daily average — it would take more than six years to vaccinate the entire population. Of course, this is a back of the envelope calculation that does not take into account the significant up scaling of the inoculation process.