Union minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday announced that the Centre will begin vaccinating citizens who are above the age of 60 and those above 45 deemed at high-risk because of pre-existing medical conditions, from March 1, ANI reported.
The vaccines will be given at 10,000 government centres and 20,000 private inoculation centres, he said. The shots given at the public centres will be free of cost.
“Those who want to get vaccinated from private hospitals will have to pay,” Javadekar added. “The amount they would need to pay will be decided by the health ministry within 3-4 days as they are in discussion with manufacturers and hospitals.”
India commenced the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines on January 16, with a target of inoculating 30 crore people by July. As many as 1,21,65,598 healthcare and frontline workers have been vaccinated as of Wednesday.