Free COVID-19 vaccination for all adults from today: Details here
What's the story
All Indian citizens aged above 18 can get the COVID-19 vaccine for free from today, according to the new government policy - a move expected to help scale up the daily vaccinations in the country.
India has so far administered over 27 crore doses of coronavirus vaccines, but the government aims to inoculate at least a billion Indians by the end of this year.
Details
India plans to administer 50 lakh doses daily
India aims to administer 50 lakh doses daily from June 21, which is the International Yoga Day, government officials told News18.
In fact, many states are gearing up for mega vaccination drives.
The Madhya Pradesh government is targeting over 10 lakh jabs today, while three lakh people will be vaccinated in Assam.
The UP government wants to administer seven lakh doses daily, starting today.
Information
Andhra Pradesh sets record by administering 13 lakh doses
On Sunday, Andhra Pradesh set a new record by administering over a million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in a single day. A total of 13,45,004 vaccine doses were administered across the southern state in a special drive, the government said.
New policy
PM had announced new vaccine policy earlier this month
On June 7, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the central government was taking back control of the vaccination drive from states.
He said 75% of all vaccines would be procured by the Centre and provided to states free of cost. Private hospitals would continue to procure the remaining 25%.
The Centre's previous vaccination policy had been criticized for several flaws, including differential pricing.
Information
Vaccination centers to provide on-site registration
It should be noted the free vaccination service for adults can be availed only at government facilities, not private ones. Further, registration on the Co-WIN app is no longer mandatory as all vaccination centers will now provide on-site registration facility.
Situation
India's coronavirus situation
India faced the world's worst coronavirus outbreak earlier this year, with daily cases crossing four lakh on a few days.
The situation has since improved. In the past 24 hours, the country reported 53,256 new COVID-19 infections - the lowest daily surge in 88 days.
1,422 deaths were also recorded during the same period.
India's positivity rate stands at 3.83 percent.
Vaccination
16% Indians have received a COVID-19 vaccine shot
India currently has three approved coronavirus vaccines - the indigenously-developed COVAXIN, Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield, and Russia's Sputnik V.
More than 27 crore vaccine doses have been administered in India, however, only 3.6% of the population is fully vaccinated.
Nearly 16% of Indians are partially vaccinated.
Meanwhile, there is no approved vaccine for children in India as yet.