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New Delhi: Private hospitals can charge up to INR 250 per dose of COVID-19 vaccine, official sources said on Saturday as India prepares to vaccinate people aged above 60 years and those over 45 with comorbidities from March 1. The COVID-19 vaccine will be given free of cost at government hospitals, while people will need to pay for it at private facilities. 

"INR 250 will be the ceiling -- INR 150 cost of vaccine plus INR 100 service charge. This arrangement will remain effective till further orders," a source said. According to sources, states and union territories have been informed about it. The Union Health Ministry on Friday had said beneficiaries would be able to self-register in advance by downloading the Co-WIN 2.0 portal and through other IT applications such as Aarogya Setu, which will show the government and private hospitals serving as COVID-19 vaccination centres (CVCs) with date and time of the available schedules.

The Election Commission announced poll schedule for assembly election for four states - Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu - and the Union Territory of Puducherry. The polls will be held in single phases in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on April 6. April 6 is incidentally the most poll-heavy day in the election schedule for the five assemblies that the Election Commission announced on Friday evening. The third phase of Assam Assembly election and also of the West Bengal Assembly polls will take place as well the same day.

The Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora announced the dates for the Assembly Elections in West Bengal, Assam, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu and Kerala on Friday (February 26). West Bengal will go to the polls starting March 27 in eight phases.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday sought to underline his government's commitment to the farmers, saying it has strived to ensure their prosperity and dignity without any dependence on middlemen. In a statement that comes amid the sustained protests by farmers outside Delhi for nearly four months opposing the new Central farm laws, he said the NDA also wanted to bring a paradigm shift in the agricultural sector.

For years, small businessmen and small farmers were ignored but the "NDA government has given topmost priority to these two sections," he said in his address at a public meeting in this western town of poll-bound Tamil Nadu. "It has been our honour to work for the small farmer of India. In the past seven years our efforts for small farmers are aimed at giving them a life of prosperity and dignity," he said.

Much has changed since the first case of  COVID-19 was confirmed in India. The country has had one of the strictest — perhaps most draconian — lockdowns, during which cases kept increasing.

Given the massive impact on the economy, it was necessary to ease the lockdown in phases. The initial days were full of anxiety, with predictions of a massive toll and COVID-19 testing lagging.

Around six months into the pandemic, the picture was not as grim as some may have feared.

While the human cost was significant — almost one lakh confirmed deaths due to COVID-19 by the end of September — it was significantly lower than the millions of deaths initially projected.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday hinted at the possibility of the Election Commission announcing poll dates for four states — Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala — and the Union Territory of Puducherry in the first week of March. in 2016, assembly elections were announed on March 4. This year, it is my assumption that the EC will announce the dates by March 7,"Modi said on his third visit in a month to poll-bound Assam.

PM Modi later travelled to Bengal’s Hooghly, where he spoke of "ashol parivartan" (real change). Sources said the poll schedule for the state might be announced after Modi holds a rally at Kolkata's Brigade Parade Ground early next month .