India: Now Vaccine at Private Hospitals on payment for above 60 yrs
The Central government on February 24 announced that the vaccination drive for people above age 60 will start from March 1 in around 10,000 government hospitals and 20,000 private hospitals.
By Newsmeter Network Published on 24 Feb 2021 10:38 AM GMT
Hyderabad: The Central government on February 24 announced that the vaccination drive for people above age 60 will start from March 1 in around 10,000 government hospitals and 20,000 private hospitals.
A person above 45 years of age with comorbidities will be also vaccinated in this phase.
The government also announced that the person who wants to get vaccinated at private hospitals will have to pay. The vaccine will be provided free of cost at government hospitals.
"The price which has to be paid will be decided by the health ministry within 3-4 days as they are in discussion with manufacturers & hospitals," said Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting.
Meanwhile, The Telangana Health Department has decided not issue the COVID-19 bulletin on a daily basis. Instead, the bulletin will now come on a weekly basis every Monday.
Speaking to NewsMeter, Dr G Srinivasa Rao, Director of Public Health and Family Welfare, Telangana said that due to the low number of cases in the state and giving priority to the vaccination process, the department has decided to release the bulletin on a weekly basis.
"Now that the cases have come down and we are focusing on the vaccination programme, the department is busy with so many activities. I don't see much significance in releasing the COVID-19 bulletin daily now. The bulletin consists of almost 40 pages, so every day around two to three members of my team are only working on that and are unable to do any other work. Our priority should be the vaccination programme now," said Dr G Srinivasa Rao.
Also, Scientists at the city-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) have found that few novel variants of the SARS-CoV-2 are spreading more in certain states, especially in southern India.
"We now have emerging evidence that N440K is spreading a lot more in the southern states. Closer surveillance is needed to understand its spread properly. Accurate and timely detection of the new variants that may show greater infectivity or worse clinical symptoms, including escape from immune response, will be extremely important to pre-empt disastrous consequences," said Dr Rakesh Mishra, Director, CCMB.
