Vaccination will continue as before in Indian government vaccination centers (file)
New Delhi:
The center announced a “liberalized and accelerated” phase 3 strategy for coronavirus vaccinations under which all adults will be eligible for vaccinations from May 1.
Here are the top five announcements by center for phase 3 vaccinations:
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Vaccine manufacturers would provide 50% of their monthly doses released by the Central Medicines Laboratory to the Indian government and would be free to provide the remaining 50% to state governments and on the open market.
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Manufacturers would transparently pre-declare the 50% supply price that would be available to state governments and in the open market, by May 1. Based on this price, state governments, private hospitals, industrial establishments, etc. would be able to procure vaccine doses from manufacturers.
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Private hospitals are expected to source Covid vaccine exclusively from the 50% supply earmarked for a channel other than that of the Indian government. Private immunization providers transparently declare their self-determined vaccination price. Eligibility through this channel would be open to all adults, i.e. anyone over the age of 18.
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The division of vaccine supply – 50% to government of India and 50% to non-government network would apply uniformly to all vaccines produced in the country. However, the Indian government will allow fully ready-to-use imported vaccines to be fully utilized in the channel other than the Indian government channel.
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The Indian government, on its part, will allocate vaccines to states / UTs based on criteria of extent of infection (number of active Covid cases) and performance (speed of administration).
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Vaccine wastage will also be taken into account in this criterion and will negatively affect the criteria. Based on the above criteria, the quota per state would be decided and communicated to the states sufficiently in advance.
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The second dose of all existing priority groups and the population over 45, wherever due, would be given priority, for which a specific and targeted strategy would be communicated to all stakeholders.
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Vaccination will continue as before in the Indian government vaccination centers, provided free of charge to the eligible population as defined previously, i.e. health workers (HCs), frontline workers (field workers ) and all people over 45 years old.
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All vaccinations would be part of the national immunization program and would be mandated to follow all protocols such as capture on the CoWIN platform, linked to AEFI notification and all other prescribed standards.
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The stocks and the price per vaccination applicable in all the vaccination centers will also have to be declared in real time.