Hyderabad: The southern Indian state of Telangana has decided to vaccinate against COVID-19 its entire 40 million population free of cost.
The decision will cost Rs 25 billion to the state exchequer.
State Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, in an official statement on Saturday said that the move would cover all the migrant workers and people from other states employed in different sectors in the state.
Free of cost
“State will incur Rs 2500 crore expenditure but this money isn’t more important than the lives of the people of the state”, the Chief Minister said issuing a formal order for free vaccination of all regardless of age.
While the Central government earlier this week had said that all the people above 18 years age in India would be vaccinated from May 1 on payment, Telangana has decided to do it free of cost irrespective of age.
The Chief Minister assured that apart from vaccine the state government will also take measures to ensure that there was no shortage of oxygen to fight against COVID-19.
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