Centre, not states to bear expenses for 1st phase of COVID-19 vaccination

Jan. 11: Interacting with chief ministers of all states to discuss the COVID-19 situation and the vaccination roll-out in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that the Centre will bear the cost of vaccination for three crore healthcare and frontline workers in the first phase of the exercise. Monday’s discussion was Modi’s first interaction with chief ministers after India’s drug regulator approved two coronavirus vaccines for restricted emergency use.

Modi also said that apart from the two already approved vaccines, four others are in the pipeline. Public representatives are not part of the three-crore corona warriors and frontline workers to be vaccinated first, Modi said. He said that vaccine beneficiaries will be identified and tracked with the help of the Centre’s monitoring app, CoWIN.