Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced that all COVID-19 vaccines will be procured by the government of India and given to the States for free.
Addressing the nation, the PM said, "25 per cent of vaccination work with states will now be handled by the Centre, it will be implemented in the coming two weeks. Both state and centre to work as per new guidelines in the coming two weeks.” He added from June 21 the free vaccine for people above 18 years will be made available.
T V Narendran, President of CII said, “The announcements by the Hon’ble Prime Minister today are welcome moves in the critical task of ensuring quick rollout of vaccines. Centralisation of procurement will ensure uniformity of procurement prices and create bandwidth among states to manage inoculation of their adult populations. This would also ensure an equitable allocation of vaccines in states and was a key task of CII too.”
He added it will go a long way in protecting the citizens and resuming normal economic activities at the earliest.
Uday Shankar, President of FICCI said, "Hon'ble Prime Minister's decision today to move to centralised vaccine procurement system and provide vaccine free of cost to the states for universal vaccination is a great move. FICCI was advocating a centralised approach to vaccination and this announcement will remove the confusion and accelerate the process of vaccine procurement.”
Shankar stated that the decision to let the private sector continue with procuring 25 percent vaccine and administer with a cap of Rs 150 on service charge brings in clarity. “Going forward, logistics costs may need to be factored in case of those vaccines which require extensive cold chain logistics. It is very encouraging to note PM’s assurance of more vaccine supply in the near future with particular mention of two more vaccines in the pipeline, 7 more firms in process of making vaccines, efforts to get vaccines from abroad and trial for nasal vaccine.”
FICCI stated that if India wants to cover at least 80 per cent of the population above 18 years of age by the end of this year, then it must increase its vaccination rate by about 100 million doses per month. “At the current rate of vaccination, which is about 2.2 million doses administered per day, only 30 percent of the eligible population will be vaccinated fully by the end of this year.”
In addition FICCI suggests a cash transfer of Rs 5,000 for three months to as many below poverty line (BPL) households as can be reached with the existing digital infrastructure, including but not limited to 'Jan Dhan' accounts. This is because the second wave of COVID-19 was more devastating.
