New Delhi: The Centre said that 54.72 lakh of the entire stock of COVID-19 vaccine doses ordered so far have been received at designated national and state-level vaccine stores in states and Union Territories till Tuesday afternoon with the coronavirus inoculation drive set to begin from January 16.
Addressing a press conference, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said all the shots, consisting of 1.1 crore doses from Serum Institute of India (SII) and 55 lakh doses from Bharat Biotech India Limited, will be received in all states and UTs by Thursday.
A massive pan-India inoculation drive against COVID-19 was set in process with Covishield vaccine leaving Pune for 13 cities across India early in the morning, four days before vaccination is scheduled to begin January 16.
Bhushan informed that the Central government is procuring 1.1 crore doses of Covishield vaccine from SII at the cost of Rs 200 per dose, excluding taxes, while 55 lakh doses of Covaxin are being procured from Bharat Biotech India Limited.
“Fifty-five lakh doses of Covaxin are being procured from Bharat Biotech. For 38.5 lakh doses the price is Rs 295 each, excluding taxes. Bharat Biotech is providing 16.5 lakh doses for free which ultimately brings the cost of each dose of Covaxin down to Rs 206,” Bhushan said.
Bhushan said there are four Central Government Medical Stores Depots at Chennai, Karnal, Kolkata and Mumbai where the vaccines are being received. Besides this, all states have at least one regional vaccine store which are temperature controlled, while some of the bigger states have more than one such facility.
Uttar Pradesh has nine such stores, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat four each, Kerala has three such facilities, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka and Rajasthan two each, he said.
“As we speak, 54,72,000 doses have already been received till 4 pm at these vaccine stores, while 100 per cent doses, 1.1 crore from Serum Institute and 55 lakh from Bharat Biotech, will be received by January 14 in all states and Union Territories,” the health secretary informed.