Private sector engagement crucial for success of COVID-19 vaccination drive: Health Ministry

New Delhi [India], June 18 (ANI): Private sector engagement is critical for the success of the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination program to reach the largest possible number of people, the health ministry said in a briefing on Friday.
Dr VK Paul, Member, Health of the Niti Aayog, in the briefing said that private sector procurement of Covid-19 vaccines would also be a systematic process and state governments would play an important role when the Centre's new vaccination program commences on June 21.
"75 per cent of domestically produced vaccines will be procured by the Centre and distributed to the state for free for implementation. 25 per cent will be done by the private sector. States will see the demand and vaccination capabilities of private hospitals in the state, aggregate it and share with the Centre," Paul said.
"There will be a systematic flow of vaccines to the private sector as well. I am hopeful that in this way, there will be a lot of energy in the participation of the private sector and vaccination sites will increase," he added.
He further said that states would be playing a facilitatory role by aggregating information and ensuring the spread of vaccinations.
"Private sector engagement is critical to the success of the vaccination program to reach the largest possible number of our people and we value that. In the present guidelines, this system has been streamlined as a partnership in which state governments play a facilitatory role of aggregation, ensuring spread, and small vaccination participation.
On June 7, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a centralised procurement system for COVID-19 vaccines, beginning from June 21, with 25 per cent of the procurement being made available for private sector, as well as free vaccinations for everyone above the age of 18. (ANI)