More than 450 private hospitals have been empanelled to inoculate senior citizens and middle-aged residents with comorbid conditions against Covid-19 from Monday in Jharkhand, officials from the state health department said on Sunday, adding that in the initial stage, private hospitals only in big cities like Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and Bokaro will be running the vaccination programme.

“The price of one jab of the vaccine will vary from Rs156 to Rs 250 at private healthcare facilities. A hospital willing to provide the vaccine with minimal service charge can provide it to the citizens for Rs 156 itself, but the ones seeking higher service charge cannot charge more than Rs250,” a director rank official said.

As per data shared by a health department official, at least 71 private hospitals and clinics have been empanelled to administer the Covishield vaccine to citizens in Ranchi. Since the vaccination requires two jabs in a gap of 28 days, the maximum amount a private facility can charge from any person for the immunization is Rs 500.

Rani Hospital, Guru Nanak Hospital and Research Centre, Raj Hospital, Anjuman Islamia Hospital, Nagarmal Modi Seva Sadan, Devkamal Hospital, Bhagwan Mahavir Medica Superspecialty Hospital, Alam Hospital and Kashyap Memorial Eye Hospital are among the 71 hospitals in the state capital empanelled to administer the vaccine.

Yogesh Gambhir, the president of Association of Healthcare Providers (AHPI), Jharkhand, said that residents could either register through the Co-Win App for immunization or simply visit the hospital and register themselves.

“People who find it difficult to operate smart phones can directly come to the hospital and register. The registration process will begin tomorrow (Monday) morning,” said Gambhir, who is also the proprietor of Raj Hospital in Ranchi, which is empanelled for the vaccination programme.

The health department provided training to healthcare workers in private hospitals on Saturday and Sunday for the second phase of the vaccination programme. Vaccination at government hospitals remained suspended for these two days, officials from the National Health Mission (NHM) said.

In the first phase of the immunization programme, Jharkhand administered the Covishield vaccine to more than 3 lakh healthcare workers and frontline workers since its nationwide launch on January 16. The state has so far achieved 78 per cent of its target in administering the first dose of the vaccine. The second dose of the vaccine has been administered to over 23,000 healthcare workers so far, which is 73 per cent of the registered beneficiaries.