Buy your own booster...the hidden message as govt cuts jab budget by 85% ?

An 85 per cent drop in allocation towards the vaccination program makes it clear that with 76% of adults in India fully vaccinated the free for all vaccine era may be coming to a close. So be ready to buy your own booster?

In the budget for the 2021-22 financial year, touted as a health budget, Sitharaman had set aside Rs 35,000 crore for Covid vaccinations this year that figure has dwindled down to just Rs 5000 cr. The reason for the reduction, the document explains, is “lower requirement for vaccination” for Covid.

The free vaccine program has boosted the world's largest inoculation drive having delivered 166 crore jabs till the end of Jan. Only about 5% of the 1.67 billion vaccine doses administered nationwide so far have been taken up through private hospitals.

But as some experts opine the political cost of not continuing with the free campaign could be viewed as higher than the expenditure required for the campaign.

Read/Watch Also: Full market approval for jabs - what it means?

To be able to make the vaccines available for private purchase the govt will have to give the vaccines 'full approval' vs the tag emergency authorisation they have currently. The subject expert committee (SEC) of India's central drug authority has already recommended the promotion in tag to the drug regulator.