Chennai, October 22: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami on Thursday announced free COVID-19 vaccine for everyone in the state once it is developed. The announcement came ahead of assembly election in the state next year. Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu are scheduled to take place in May.

"Everybody in Tamil Nadu will be given the vaccine for free. As soon as the vaccine is found, the Tamil Nadu government will give it to everyone for free," reported The News Minute quoting the Tamil Nadu CM as saying. He made the announcement while speaking in Pudukkottai district.

Statement by Tamil Nadu CM: 

Notably, a similar promise was made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar ahead of assembly election there. "As soon as a COVID-19 vaccine is available for production at a mass scale, every person in Bihar will get free vaccination. This is the first promise mentioned in our poll manifesto," Union Finance Minister Sitharaman said while releasing manifesto.

On Wednesday reports surfaced that India will provide the vaccine against coronavirus (COVID-19) to 30 million people, including frontline health workers, in the first phase. According to Hindustan Times, The first phase of vaccination for COVID-19 has been tentatively scheduled between January and June 2021.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 22, 2020 05:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).