India is gearing up to begin its first wave of COVID-19 vaccination programme for priority groups, in which nearly 30 crore persons will receive the vaccine, including one crore healthcare workers, two crore frontline workers, and 27 crore elderly individuals. In the first phase of the immunisation drive, the three crore recipients — the healthcare workers and frontline workers — will receive the vaccine for free, with the cost borne by the Union government.
According to NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul, the healthcare and frontline workers, however, will not have a choice between the two COVID-19 vaccines authorised for use in India — Serum Institute of India's Covishield and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin. A decision about the following phases — whether it will be free and which vaccine will be administered — is yet to be finalised, he added. It must be noted that many state governments including Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, had announced that COVID-19 vaccine will be made free of cost.
Dr VK Paul, who is also the Chairman of National Expert Group On Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC), told India Today on Monday that the decision on which vaccine goes where will be taken by the Ministry of Health and communicated to the state government. "Now, the population, which is offered vaccine A, has the choice to take it. If they do not voluntarily take it, I suppose it is their choice. But we believe the healthcare workers, who know the health issues more than others, will overwhelmingly accept the decision. And they will have faith in the decision taken by our regulator.”
Although Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin has been given approval for emergency use, many are still apprehensive as the vaccine is still in its phase-three clinical trial.
Recipients are, therefore, allowed to opt out of being vaccinated altogether. However, the decision on which state receives which of the two vaccines will be decided by the Union Ministry of Health, according to VK Paul.
“No vaccine is compulsory, it is voluntary. We have emergency use authorisation for two vaccines, and our vaccines have shown great immunogenicity, including T-cell immunogenicity, and show great safety over thousands of individuals,” Dr Paul said.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Saturday said that one crore healthcare workers and two crore frontline workers would be given free vaccine in the first phase of the inoculation drive, adding that the details of how the remaining 27 crore priority beneficiaries will be vaccinated till July is getting finalised.
WATCH: What Dr VK Paul says