Covishield or Covaxin? What will be booster dose; Here's what govt said
PremiumGovt allows private vaccination centres to impose service charges up to ₹150 while administering Covid booster/precautionary dose.
India is all set to administer Covid-19 booster shots to all adults from April 10 after the Union Ministry of Health gave its nod on Friday amid the drop in new virus cases.
While the Centre has laid out certain rules that who will be eligible for the third shot and details regarding appointment booking, but netizens have expressed confusion about which vaccine will be the booster shot.
As a result, the Union Health Ministry has cleared the confusion saying the precaution dose will be the same vaccine that was used for the first and second doses. There will not be a cocktail of vaccines.
"Precaution dose will be of the same vaccine which has been used for administration of first and second dose. No fresh registrations would be required for precaution dose as all due beneficiaries are already registered on CoWIN," Union Health Secretary wrote on Twitter.
Further, the Health Secretary allowed the vaccination centre to impose a service charge on vaccination up to ₹150.
"Private vaccination centres can charge only up to a maximum of ₹150 as service charge for vaccination over &above the cost of the vaccine," the Central government said on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Covishield manufacturing company Serum Institute of India has already announced the cost of its vaccine on Friday.
In a notification, the company informed, the end-users will have to pay ₹600 for a Covishield booster dose and the hospitals will get it at a discounted price.
As per the government's guidelines those who had taken their second dose nine months previously would be eligible for the shot, which they will have to pay for at private facilities.
The government in January launched a state-funded booster programme for health workers and people older than 60, which has since administered 24 million shots.
India launched its Covid vaccination campaign in January last year, banking on homemade vaccines Covishield and Covaxin.
India remains the world's third-worst affected nation by the virus after the United States and Brazil.
More than 521,000 people have died and over 40 million have been infected across the country since the pandemic began in January 2020, according to official figures.
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