Buy your way out of COVID

Private hospitals will now be allowed to administer COVID-19 vaccines.

The vaccines were initially allowed to be administered by only selected government or public-private partnership hospitals. Now the government has allowed all adequate private hospitals to also administer the vaccine.

The conditions are that the hospitals have to have:

1. Adequate cold chain arrangement; as the vaccine needs to be stored at very cool temperatures

2. Adequate number of vaccinators

3. Adequate space for vaccinations

4. Adequate space for managing the vaccination's storage

The government along with these conditions have also placed a price ceiling of Rs. 250 on the vaccine. Anyhow, just because private hospitals can administer the vaccine does not mean that they have been given the permission to give it to anyone they wish.

The procedure discussed in a previous post is still being followed. So the hospitals cannot start selling it in a non-price discriminatory manner, where they through favouritism decide who gets the vaccine and when.

This decision will soon increase the rate at which the vaccines are being administered, already more than 1.5 Crore Indians have been vaccinated, and through this intervention the number will surely rise rapidly.