After a social media post of a hotel chain in Hyderabad offering vaccination packages went viral, the Government of India, in a strongly-worded letter clarified that hotels and private hospitals offering such packages will have to face legal and administrative action.
Detailing the options available for carrying out COVID vaccination as per official guidelines, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) mentioned that only the following four options are available to conduct COVID vaccination drives in India:
- Government COVID vaccination centres
- Private COVID vaccination centre run by a private hospital
- Workplace COVID vaccination centre at government offices run by government hospitals and at private companies to be run by private hospitals
- ‘Near to home’ COVID vaccination centre for elderly and differently abled people to be organised by group housing societies, RWA offices, community centres etc
The letter further states that no other venue must carry out vaccination under the national COVID vaccination programme and hence, star hotels offering vaccination packages must “stop immediately”.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)