PM Narendra Modi today while addressing India announced that Centre will take over the COVID-19 vaccination drive completely. Centralised vaccination policy will be implemented again which means no state will be allowed to procure vaccines and that the Centre will procure 25 per cent COVID-19 vaccines that was to be done by states.
From June 21, all people above 18 years in all states will be provided vaccines free by the Centre, the PM said.
"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 said.
The Prime Minister further said that private hospitals will also be allowed to directly procure vaccines, as they have been doing. A maximum service charge of Rs 150 can be taken.
"However, the task of monitoring this will remain with the state governments," the Prime Minister added.
The decision of the government for centralised vaccination was taken following demand from several states. They demanded that the Centre should procure vaccines and supply them. The Centre is already procuring 50 per cent COVID-19 vaccines under the decentralised plan announced earlier.
The PM said that over 23 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been given in the country and the supply of vaccines will increase in the coming days.
He added, "New health infrastructure has been developed in the 1.5 years with COVID hospitals, ventilators beds, to preparing a network of testing labs. During the 2nd wave in April-May, demand for medical oxygen increased at an unprecedented rate."
Speaking about overall vaccination in India, the PM said that there is very less number of vaccine manufacturers in world compared to its demand. "Imagine what would have happened in India if we didn't have vaccines. If you look at history of last 50-60 yrs, you will know that it used to take decades for India to get vaccines from abroad," he added.
