New Delhi: While addressing the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that Central government will provide free vaccines for all above 18 years from June 21. All vaccines will be procured by the central government and given to the states for free, he said.

India’s fight against second wave of Covid pandemic is continuing. This is the deadliest pandemic in the past 100 years. The modern world has not seen such a pandemic. Our country has fought this pandemic at many levels, the PM said.

Addressing the nation, PM Modi said the country has two made-in-India vaccines.

“Today more than 23 crore vaccine doses have been administered in the country… The vaccine supply will be increasing in the coming days. Seven companies in the country are producing different vaccines and three vaccine trials are at an advanced stage,” he said.

Noting that vaccines are protection for people against the virus, he said vaccine-producing countries are less compared to the demand for vaccines.

“Today, if we didn’t have India-made vaccines, then what would have happened in such a big country like India?” he asked.

Noting that India is fighting the second wave of the pandemic, he expressed sympathies with the families who have lost their loved ones to the virus.

“In the last 100 years, this is the most devastating crisis ever. This pandemic has never been seen nor experienced in the modern world. In such a global epidemic, our country has fought on several levels. From making COVID hospitals to increasing ICU beds, from making ventilators to creating a big network of testing labs. To fight COVID in the last one-and-a-year, new healthcare infrastructure has been created in the country,” he said.

“In the history of India, there has never been such a need for oxygen. To fulfill the demand, work was done on a war level, all mechanisms of the government were at play. Oxygen rail was started, air force and navy were deployed. In a very short time, the production of liquid medical oxygen was increased by ten times,” he said.