Covid vaccine will be free for entire country: Minister

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Saturday said the coronavirus vaccine will be free for the entire nation. The minister also reviewed the dry run of administering the vaccine at Guru Teg Bahadur hospital in Delhi.

New Delhi:Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Saturday has said that the coronavirus vaccine will be free for the entire nation when the first batch of the vaccine arrives in the country.

Vardhan, in the wee hours, arrived at Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) hospital to review the dry run of administering the COVID-19 vaccine. The dry run will be conducted by all the States and Union Territories from Saturday.

According to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, the objective of the dry run for COVID-19 vaccine introduction is to "assess operational feasibility in the use of COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network application in a field environment, to test the linkages between planning and implementation and to identify the challenges and guide the way forward prior to actual implementation".

In Delhi, the drive is being conducted at three locations - the Daryaganj primary health centre, the government-run Guru Teg Bahadur hospital, and the private Venkateshwara hospital.

Preparation is underway for the dry run of administering the COVID19 vaccine at Area Hospital, Nampally in Hyderabad.

In Maharashtra, the dry run of administering the COVID-19 vaccine will be conducted at District Hospital in Pune.

"Data of healthcare workers from Maharashtra has been uploaded on CoWIN," said District Civil Surgeon. The first round of the dry run was conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Punjab on 28-29 December 2020 in two districts each where five-session sites with 25 beneficiaries each were identified. No major issues were observed in the operational aspects during this dry run. All States expressed confidence in the operational guidelines and IT platform for large scale programme implementation.

ANI