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2 A medic administers the first dose of Covaxin vaccine to a frontline worker, during an COVID-19 inoculation drive, at Sanjeevan Hospital in New Delhi. PTI file
Aditi Tandon
New Delhi, February 27
Ahead of phase-2 COVID vaccinations starting Monday for 60 plus people and those aged 45 to 59 years with specific illnesses, the Centre on Saturday capped the cost of inoculation in private hospitals at Rs 250 a dose while vaccination for people visiting government facilities will be free of cost.
The Centre also listed 20 conditions to prioritise those aged 45 to 59 years for COVID jabs.
These include intellectual disabilities, muscular dystrophy, acid attacks with involvement of respiratory system, deafness and blindness.
Covid vaccine cost in private hospitals capped at Rs 250 per dose tribuneindia.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from tribuneindia.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Read more about Private hospitals can charge up to Rs 250 for a shot of Covid-19 vaccine on Business Standard. Beneficiaries will be able to self-register in advance by downloading Co-Win and also through other platforms such as Aarogya Setu
The government has asked all the states and Union Territories to extend vaccination sessions to all public health care centres and hospitals empaneled with the Centre’s health service and Prime Minister Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) from March, the health ministry said on Thursday.
The Covid vaccination for those above 60 years and above 45 years with comorbidities will start from March 1. According to the health ministry, 11,000 of the 24,000 hospitals under the PMJAY that give cashless treatment are private ones. This underlines the growing role of private sector hospitals in the next phase of vaccination.
More than 13 million doses have been administered so far to health and frontline workers. The Centre held a meeting on Wednesday with all the states to review the progress of the drive.
The government is still trying to figure out the cause behind the surge in Covid-19 cases in states like Maharashtra and Kerala, but has ruled out any of the variants as being responsible for the spike. “There is no scientific reason to believe they (variants) are responsible for the surge.This is a work in progress and eminent scientists are watching the situation,” said V K Paul, member (health) of NITI Aayog. Kerala and Maharashtra account for 75 per cent of the total active cases in the country. The daily case trajectory is also seeing a surge in Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir. In Maharashtra, the daily case count on Tuesday went up from around 3,600 on February 13 to over 5,200.