On a day the nation held a dry run of the COVID-19 vaccination drive, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan retracted his previous statement saying that vaccination would be free of charge for all Indian citizens, leading to speculation about who will bear the cost of the two shots.

In Maharashtra, Health Minister Rajesh Tope, who supervised a dry run in one district, spoke of Vardhan's free vaccination announcement, made on Saturday. However, the Union Minister's clarification made within hours-stating that the free vaccine would be provided in the first phase to most prioritised beneficiaries, including one crore healthcare and two crore frontline workers-must have come as dampener to the state minister who expected the Centre to pay for the vaccine.