New Delhi, February 27: The Centre of Saturday capped COVID-19 vaccine jab at private hospitals at Rs 250. The government said, "Private hospitals functioning as COVID-19 Vaccination Centres may recover a charge subject to a ceiling of Rs 250 per person per dose." The development came at a time when the country is preparing to vaccinate people aged above 60 years and those over 45 with comorbidities from March 1. The Centre also allowed private hospitals to involve in the vaccination process.

The government said, "To ramp up COVID vaccination capacity large number of private facilities are being involved- around 10,000 private hospitals empanelled under Ayushman Bharat PMJAY, more than 600 hospitals empanelled under CGHS and other private hospitals empanelled under State Govts." Meanwhile, The COVID-19 vaccine will be given free of cost at government hospitals. People need to pay for the COVID-19 jab if they want to get vaccinated at private hospitals. Viral WhatsApp Message Claims COVID-19 Vaccine Charge For Next Phase of Vaccination is Around Rs 500; PIB Fact Check Terms it 'Misleading'.

The Union Health Ministry on Friday had said beneficiaries would be able to self-register in advance by downloading the Co-WIN 2.0 portal and through other IT applications such as Aarogya Setu, which would show the government and private hospitals serving as COVID-19 vaccination centres (CVCs) with date and time of the available schedules. NITI Aayog Propose COVID-19 Vaccine Price Between Rs 300–500.

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The beneficiary would be able to choose the CVC of his/her choice and book an appointment for vaccination, the ministry said. There will be the facility of on-site registration so that eligible beneficiaries can walk into identified vaccination centres, get themselves registered and inoculated. "Eligible beneficiaries would be able to register themselves on the Co-WIN platform from March 1 itself," R S Sharma, Chairman of Empowered Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Administration, had said.

The nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive was launched on January 16. This is now to be exponentially expanded to the age-groups -- all citizens above 60 years and those within the age bracket of 45 to 59 years with specified comorbidities -- from March 1. During a meeting held on Friday, representatives of states and UTs were explained the basic features of version 2.0 of the digital platform Co-WIN, which is a population-scale software with capacity of processing several thousands of entries.

(With inputs from PTI)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 27, 2021 07:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).