At a time when a dozen of private healthcare centres are providing Covid-19 vaccines for Rs 250 in steel city, one of the private centres has decided to administer the shot to a selected few categories of people free of charge.

Mango’s Ganga Memorial Hospital at Sankosai has decided to provide the Covid-19 vaccines for free.

Those entitled to get the vaccine free of charge are the family members of army staff, people belonging to below poverty line (BPL), handicapped individuals, and lepers.

The management of the nursing home through a notice has called upon people belonging to these four categories to get registered at the healthcare centre from Monday.

Dr. N Singh, director of Ganga Memorial Hospital said, “The beneficiaries are required to get their names registered from 9 am on Monday and they will be administered the vaccines the next day, that is from Tuesday.”

He added, “Presently, we do not have any stock of Covaxin or Covishield vaccines at our hospital. We will obtain the required vaccines from MGM Medical College Hospital based on the number of registration, following which the vaccines will be administered to people belonging to any age group,” said Singh while talking to The Telegraph Online on Sunday.

Presently, the Covid-19 vaccines are being given free of cost at the MGM Medical College Hospital, Sadar Hospital in Khasmahal, and at all the primary health centres from March 1. Those belonging to the age-group 45-59 years with comorbidity and people above 60 years are getting vaccinated at the above-mentioned government-run health hubs from March 1 here.

District surveillance officer, Sahir Pal said so far over 5,000 beneficiaries have been inoculated at the government-run health hubs, including at the MGM Medical College Hospital since March 1.

“We have adequate stock of both Covaxin and Covishield at our disposal. We are going to expedite the process of Covid-19 vaccination drive so that the people may get immune to the killer virus at the earliest,” said Pal while talking to The Telegraph Online.

The district surveillance officer, when asked, confirmed about Ganga Memorial Hospital providing the vaccine free of cost.