Centre to allocate Covid-19 vaccines to states for priority groups

The Centre on Wednesday said it would continue to allocate vaccines to state governments under the new policy for administering the jabs to priority groups identified for the Covid-19 vaccination drive.

Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said the Centre would allot vaccines to the state governments 15 days in advance on the basis of a quota fixed on three points – average consumption of vaccines, extent of infections and wastage of doses.

Bhushan said wastage of doses will affect the allocation negatively, he said adding that the states would be informed in advance about the quotas allocated to it.

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“This will give them an idea how much they are getting from the Government of India, how much they should procure, if they so desire, and how much private hospitals in their respective states are procuring,” he said.

Bhushan said this approach would provide the states a bigger picture on the availability of vaccines as on date and future availability for the next fortnight.

He said primacy would be given to ensure that all priority groups identified by the government get the second dose of the vaccines to ensure full protection to them.

He said after the new vaccine policy gets rolling on May 1, the Rs 250 per dose system followed by private hospitals would cease to exist.

Bhushan said free vaccination would be available at all the vaccination centres that receive vaccine doses from the Centre.

“Therefore, the vulnerable sections, the aged sections and the poor sections will get vaccines free of cost at the centres where vaccines would be provided by the government of India,” he said.

Bhushan said vaccination would continue to be free for eligible groups identified by the Centre, while the others will have to go to the separate channels to get inoculated for the vaccine.