Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said on Saturday the vaccine against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) will be provided free of cost to residents in the Capital as the day-long Covid-19 vaccination dry run began across the country. “Yes, medicines and treatment are being provided for free in Delhi, anyway,” Jain said when asked if the vaccine will be provided free of cost in the city, according to news agency ANI.
The Centre, too, has repeatedly stressed that the Covid-19 vaccine will be provided “free of cost” across India. Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Saturday reiterated this commitment. “Not just in Delhi, but it will be free across the country,” ANI quoted him as saying.
India is close to getting its first Covid-19 vaccine, Oxford University-AstraZeneca’s Covishield, which now requires approval only from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) will manufacture the vaccine in the country.