Port Blair, June 15: The Lt Governor, A&N Islands had made a request to Prime Minister on 31/05/2021 for providing the vaccine doses directly by the Central Government for the category of 18-44 years of age group as per the earlier system of 45+ age group, free of cost.
Pursuant to the above request of Lt. Governor, A & N Islands, the Govt. of India announced the revised guidelines on 08.06.2021 for implementation of National COVID Vaccination Programme. Under these guidelines, the vaccine doses are to be provided by the Central Government to States/ UTs free of cost for the category of 18-44 years of age also. The revised guidelines have been issued in this regard which state that Government of India will procure 75% of the vaccine doses being produced by the manufacturers in the country and it will be provided free of cost to States/UTs as has been the case from the commencement of the National Vaccination programme and these doses will be administered by the States/UTs free of cost to all the citizens as per priority through Government Vaccination Centres. The Prioritized groups will be:
*Health Care Workers
*Front Line Workers
*Citizens more than 45 years of age
*Citizens whose second dose has become due
*Citizens 18 years and above
These revised guidelines will come into effect from 21/06/2021 and will be reviewed time to time by the Government of India.
Now, the A&N Administration has decided the following groups will be prioritized in the age group of 18-44 years:
*All Govt. employees serving in Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
*Employees working in public carriage services.
*Persons with Co-morbidity.
*Media personnel.
*Essential commodity suppliers and their staff.
*Any other vulnerable population.
The A&N Administration is working at war footing to vaccinate 100% of its general populace and make this UT a COVID free territory. The kind cooperation from the general public is highly solicited during this pandemic period, a press release from Directorate of Health Services said.
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