Guwahati: The Government of Assam is set to utilise the contribution of over Rs 100 crore by the people of Assam to help the government fight the deadly coronavirus to purchase the vaccines for the ordinary people if the Centre does not pay for the vaccines.
Assam Health Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma has that the Centre will pay for the vaccines of 2.9 lakh registered beneficiaries from the two categories of health workers and frontline workers. The vaccination drive in the state, as well as the country, started on Saturday.
The next phase of the vaccines will be for the people above the age of 50 years and the ones with morbidities from any age. Vaccination drives will be carried out for the general people only after all these categories of prioritised people are vaccinated. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not yet mentioned about who will bear the cost of the vaccines in the third and the later phases.
Dr Sarma said that they are mentally prepared to share some percentage of the cost of the vaccines in the later phases. He further added that the people of the state has earlier donated for Assam Arogya Nidhi to help the state government fight the pandemic. He said they will utilise the amount to buy the vaccines.
COVID-19 vaccination drive started in Assam today. Twelve senior doctors in Assam were the first to get the initial doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on today. According to reports, the doctors considered for the first dose of vaccine at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) are– Dr UC Sarma, Dr Dhrubojyoti Bora, Dr Illias Ali, Dr Bibhash Chandra Goswami, Dr Subhash Khanna, Dr Harsha Bhattacharjee, Dr Rathindra Bhuyan, Dr Anup Barman, Dr Achyut Baishya, Dr Abhijit Sarma, Dr Brajen Lahkar and Dr Manoj Choudhury.
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