Amaravati, Jun 8 (IANS): Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has expressed happiness over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to provide free Covid vaccines to all aged above 18 years.

On Monday, in his address to the nation, the Prime Minister announced that the Centre is taking responsibility of supplying Covid vaccines to all the states, for administering them free of cost to all those who are 18-years-old and above.

Late Monday night, Reddy took to Twitter to welcome the Prime Minister's announcement. "Vaccination is the only weapon in this battle against Covid-19. Sincere thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for clearing this uncertainty and making vaccination a national agenda of utmost priority. #FreeVaccineForAll," Reddy tweeted.

Reaching out to his counterparts across the country, the Andhra Pradesh chief minister had on Thursday called for collectively urging the central government "to take charge and responsibility" for the vaccination drive, as was being done earlier.

In a letter addressed to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday, Reddy pointed out that the global tender floated by Andhra Pradesh government, has not received bids. He noted that several other state governments have reported similar experiences.