CENTRE DEFENDS VACCINE STRATEGY, SAYS STATES DOING NEEDLESS POLITICS
NEW DELHI: The Centre liberalised the coronavirus vaccination strategy to allow states, private hospitals and industrial establishments following requests from nearly all states and to unleash the “combined effort of Team India” to inoculate every adult in the earliest possible time, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday.
In a four-page statement posted on his Twitter handle, the minister defended the new strategy under which everyone above 18 years of age will be vaccinated against COVID-19 from May 1 and hit out at those political leaders indulging in “needless politics” on the matter and spreading misinformation.
Vardhan said he sees no reason why the states must complain now as they were demanding removal of restrictions on vaccine supplies to them.
The new strategy gives states one guaranteed channel of free vaccine supply from the Centre, while they can simultaneously procure vaccines directly from manufacturers for which they can negotiate prices, he said.
Under the third phase of the vaccine drive commencing next month, the vaccine manufacturers would supply 50% of their monthly Central Drugs Laboratory released doses to the central government and would be free to supply the remaining 50 % doses to states and in the open market.
“Several questions are being raised on the balance 50 per cent quota and what it means .... Many states had requested that the vaccination process be opened up for them. Now, this ‘balance 50 per cent quota’ shall give them the freedom to vaccinate groups that they deem as priority,” he said.