India administered 4.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine in a record single day on Monday, informed Union Health Minister, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, through a tweet.
"World's largest vaccine drives blazes ahead, firing on all cylinders. A record-breaking 47 lakh Covid-19 vaccine doses administered so far on Day 1 of implementation of revised guidelines of our vaccination drive," he wrote in the tweet.
This achievement followed soon after the centralised free vaccination policy came into effect in the country, under which the government is providing Covid-19 vaccine free-of-cost to all citizens above the age of 18.
As per the earlier policy, state governments were procuring vaccines for their residents. After criticism by several states over the management of the vaccination programme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that the Centre would take over the nationwide vaccination drive procure 75% of vaccines and give them to states for free distribution to all citizens above the age of 18.
Before the Centre's takeover, the government was only supplying vaccines free of cost vaccines for people aged 45 and above.
Earlier in the day, Bharatiya Janata Party's national president JP Nadda said that India's vaccination drive is the largest and the fastest in the world. "India's ongoing nationwide inoculation drive is the world's largest and fastest vaccination programme. We have taken the fastest path for vaccinating our people," he said at the vaccination centre in a Delhi hospital.
The health minister also revised the maximum price of vaccines and announced a cap on per dose price to be charged by private vaccine centers. It is now Rs.780 for Covishield, Rs1,410 for Covaxin and Rs1,145 for Sputnik V vaccines.
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