Online registration begins for COVID-19 vaccines for Indians aged 18 and above

NEW DELHI, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Online registration for COVID-19 vaccination for all Indians aged 18 and above began on Wednesday.

This will be the third phase of vaccination against the pandemic in the country.

The vaccination process for the third phase is slated to begin on May 1.

The government of India has so far provided nearly 160 million vaccine doses free of cost, said an official statement issued by the federal health ministry on Wednesday.

It further said that more than 10 million COVID-19 vaccine doses are still available with the state governments to be administered, and that more than 5.7 million vaccine doses will be received in addition by the states within the next three days.

Meanwhile, in a related development, the Serum Institute of India (SII) slashed the price tag of its vaccine "Covishield" by one fourth.

The SII has received orders for 340 million doses from state governments and 20 million doses from private hospitals in India. A large part of the outstanding orders is said to be from various state governments.