Registration for covid vaccination for those who are 18 and over will begin from 28 April on the CoWIN platform and Aarogya Setu app, the health ministry said on Thursday. The process and documents required to get the vaccine remains the same as before. Jabs for all adults will start on 1 May under phase 3 of the vaccination drive.
The statement came as the pandemic continued on its upward trajectory in India, with nearly 315,000 cases and more than 2,100 deaths in the past 24 hours.
The government said it will continue to use the CoWIN platform that is designed to run the immunization programme in India. However, the criteria for phase 3 will change. While the default criteria at private hospitals will be for all who are 18 and over, central government hospitals will inoculate only those who are 45 years or over. State governments have, however, been allowed to set their own criteria, government officials said.
Vaccine makers will have to supply 50% of the doses to state governments and in the open market. They will have to transparently make an advance declaration of the price for 50% of the supply meant for state governments and the market before 1 May.
The government will stop supplying covid vaccines to private centres at ₹250 per dose, as these hospitals can now procure vaccines directly from vaccine manufacturers.
Vaccination will continue in government centres free of cost for those eligible, including healthcare and frontline workers and anyone who is 45 or more.
While Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim and Assam have declared they will provide vaccines free of cost to all adults, others like Rajasthan has requested the Centre to provide free vaccines for all.
Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Rajasthan accounted for 75.66% of the new cases in the past 24 hours. Maharashtra reported the highest new cases with 67,468, followed by UP (33,106) and Delhi (24,638).
The total active caseload reached 2.29 million, comprising 14.38% of the total positive cases since the outbreak. A fall of 133,890 cases was recorded in the total active caseload in the past 24 hours.
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