Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced that all Indians above 18 years of age will be administered free COVID-19 vaccine from June 21.Addressing the nation, the Prime Minister made it clear that the states will be provided these vaccine doses free of cost from Central government. "The government of India will provide free vaccine to the states from Monday, June 21, in every state for all citizens above the age of 18 years," Modi said.

The Prime Minister said that government of India itself will buy 75 per cent of the total vaccine production from vaccine manufacturers and give it free to the state governments. Modi also said that 25 per cent of the vaccines being made in the country will be provided directly to the private sector hospitals while they will be able to charge a maximum service fee of Rs 150 for a single dose after the fixed price of the vaccine.

"The task of monitoring it will remain with the state governments," the Prime Minister added. "No state government of the country will have to spend anything on the vaccine," Modi further announced. Till now, the Prime Minister said, crores of people of the country have got free vaccine. "Now people of 18 years of age will also join it," he said. "Only the Government of India will provide free vaccine to all the countrymen," the Prime Minister reiterated.

It was decided on Monday that the government of India will also bear the responsibility of 25 per cent of the work related to vaccination with the state governments, said the Prime Minister, adding "this arrangement will be implemented in the coming two weeks." "In these two weeks, the Central and state governments will together make necessary preparations according to the new guidelines," he said.

He also announced that COVID-19 vaccine supply would increase in the country in coming days and trials for three more vaccines are going on.Leaders of 12 major Opposition parties, including four Chief Ministers, had written a joint letter to the Prime Minister on May 13 asking the Centre to procure vaccines centrally from global and domestic sources and begin a free, universal mass vaccination campaign across the country.

The signatories of the letter included Congress president Sonia Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda.

The other leaders who signed the letter were NCP chief Sharad Pawar, JKPA’s Farooq Abdullah, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav and RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was not a signatory as the Left was represented by CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and his CPI counterpart D Raja.

This was the second letter by these leaders to the Prime Minister. On May 2, hours after the Assembly election results, they wrote asking the Central government to launch a free mass vaccination drive across the country and ensure oxygen supplies to all hospitals and health centres.

On June 2, the Supreme Court had in a sharply-worded order said that the Centre’s policy of paid vaccination for those between 18 and 44 was ‘arbitrary and irrational’.

"Due to the changing nature of the pandemic, we are now faced with a situation where the18-44 age group also needs to be vaccinated, although priority may be retained between different age groups on a scientific basis. Hence, due to the importance of vaccinating individuals in the 18-44 age group, the policy of the Central Government for conducting free vaccination themselves for groups under the first 2 phases, and replacing it with paid vaccination by the State/UT Governments and private hospitals for the persons between 18-44 years is,prima facie, arbitrary and irrational", the court had observed.

The observation was made by a bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud, L Nageswara Rao and S Ravindra Bhat in the suo moto case on COVID-related issues in a 32-page order.The court went on to ask the Centre to undertake a ‘fresh review’ of its vaccination policy.