Covid-19 vaccine should be kept affordable, free of cost for economically vulnerable: Deve Gowda

Even as there is much anticipation on availability of Covid-19 vaccines, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, who took part in an all-party Covid-19 review meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, urged the government to make vaccines free for economically vulnerable sections of society.

He also asked the Centre to ensure that the vaccine prices were affordable to all sections of society.

In the meeting, the JD(S) supremo also recommended that the government constitute a high-level team to coordinate vaccination efforts. The transport and storage of vaccines will be a challenge. A high-level team reporting to the PMO directly, should at the same time coordinate with medical and paramedical volunteers at the gram panchayat level, he said.

He also appraised the PM of the need to establish cold storage centres for long-term storage of vaccines. “The PM should pass on this challenge to our IITs. They should tell us how to convert any room into a cold storage facility with an inexpensive assembly unit,” Gowda said, according to a note shared by his office.