Will Delhi residents get Covid-19 vaccine for free? Health minister Satyendar Jain answers

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.

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As India is getting closer to getting its maiden Covid-19 vaccine, questions have been raised in some quarters on whether the shot will be provided free of cost. Opposition parties have also repeatedly demanded that the government provide vaccines for free across the country, instead of promising it in only poll-bound states. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had raised eyebrows when it promised “free vaccines” in Bihar, where the assembly elections took place in three phases in October-November last year.

Saturday’s pan-India vaccination dry run follows the two-day exercise in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and Punjab on December 28 and 29.